


On The Flower Road

by such_a_fangirl_for_that



Category: Big Bang (Band), GTOP (Band), K-pop
Genre: 2010s, Alternate Universe - High School, Big Bang, Castings, Cheating, Coming of Age, F/M, Friendship, GTOP, High School, Kpop idols AU, Love, M/M, New Student Jiyong, Not Beta Read, One-Sided Attraction, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Build, but not sure yet, for now, inspired by a song, much explanation at the beginning, musical AU, pining!jiyong, slow building up story plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-05-18 03:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14845160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/such_a_fangirl_for_that/pseuds/such_a_fangirl_for_that
Summary: All Jiyong wants to do is to make music, to sing, to rap, to just create. After starting his junior year at a new high school, he meets some amazing people and an old childhood friend, and his wish appears to be within his reach. But some things don't work out as planned and with it come emotional surprises...





	1. INTRO

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic on AO3, my English is terribly rusty and I’m known for my procrastination. BUT: I fell in love with this story idea and got inspired so much by the song Goodbye Baby from BigBang – back then when they still were in this 2010-hiphop vibe! (Google it, you’ll know what I mean!)  
> I have no idea how often I get to post something – I work with this story also in a screenplay lecture I have in university, so the story is basically always on my mind :)  
> This is just the prolog, but I still hope you’ll like it! Please tell me, if there are formulations, idioms and such I use in a wrong way… I’m not used to writing longer texts in English…

The stage is still completely dark. Even the fans in the first row can’t see anything that happens just a few meters away from their faces. This doesn’t stop them from cheering and shouting, chanting his name. Those moments are the ones he enjoys the most… Well, not the most actually – but they are still amazing. Knowing, that all those people like – no, LOVE – what you do, that they enjoy what you perform in front of them… This is the greatest feeling of all. Yes, there are stressful moments, and hours of hard work and sweat and sometimes you feel like you can’t do it anymore. But he still loves what he does. This is his life and he wouldn’t change a thing.

Well, that’s a lie. He would love to change something. And tonight, he’s going to do exactly that.  
The concert hall looks like a huge, dark mass. Some fans already hold up signs with his name or declarations of love on it. It’s his first concert after months of hiatus, where he didn’t even talk about his future plans. Well, tonight’s the night, he’s going to reveal the secret. And he’s so happy! This was his dream from the very beginning – took him long enough to get here and even longer for this fantasy to become reality. He got his hair done in a new color and changed nearly his whole wardrobe for this comeback – nothing unusual normally, but this time it feels even more special – like going back to his roots and mixing it with his new self.

Flashes from cameras can be seen all over the hall, the chanting of the fans is getting louder. The show begins in just a few moments and they know it. He already has a mic in his hand. He closes his eyes and takes one last deep breath. This is it. This is not going to be just a “normal” comeback – this is going to be a new stage in his career – his life! He grins as he opens his eyes, gives the crew behind the stage a silent sign and –


	2. A BOY

“My name is Kwon Jiyong. Nice to meet you.” Jiyong tilted his head a bit and pushed his school bag higher up his shoulder. He wasn’t really nervous standing here in front of a whole class of strangers. Though, he had to admit, his looks kind of set him apart from other students in here - even if it was just a little bit. He had no idea, how people in this area reacted to people who wanted to look different and had their own style – he hadn’t seen much of the suburb so far. Some of the boxes in his room were still sealed and his mum had difficulties to make them breakfast this morning, because the kitchen was a mess and no food was in the fridge. It’s been two stressful weeks, but finally they could at least relax a bit.

Jiyong focused his thoughts back to his new class and the people that would keep him company for the next two years until graduation. At first glance there was nothing unusual with these young people in their simple – and mostly “pimped-up” uniforms – who probably just wanted to get back to summer break again. The school didn’t really seem to mind if their students changed something at the uniform. Good to know. Jiyong hadn’t had the honor yet, to try on his new school clothes. He’d get them after school. Because of that his fellow students had the pleasure to get an idea of his normal, personal style. His bleached hair still held tight to the orange tinge, after the red color got more and more washed out over time. He wanted to go to a hair salon, but it’s been way too stressful in the last couple of weeks. Maybe this week he’d find the time to do so. Also – because he was missing his uniform – he wore a baggy tanktop under his leather jacket and slightly ripped jeans. Back at his previous high school he really stood out like a sore thumb. But that was also a completely different area, even further away from the capital than this part of the suburbs.  
Some of the people in class eyed him suspiciously, others seemed curious and some just straight up bored. In the last row two girls were whispering quietly, but aside from them the class was completely silent – it was the first lesson of the day after all and the teacher, Mrs. Sidfield, still stood next to Jiyong and had a watchful eye on her students. She was a rather tall woman with a neatly styled bob haircut and kind face. When Jiyong’d first met her, she came across as a friendly teacher, who still knew how to get her students to listen. For now, he couldn’t really tell if his assumptions were correct.  
After a few seconds, she smiled at him and told him to take a seat. The selection of empty chairs was limited since there was only one in the second row. After he gave his teacher a nod, he sat down next to a guy with dreadlocks. The boy only looked at him briefly, gave a small smile and turned his eyes back to the front of class. ‘A few of the students here actually look ok, though’, Jiyong thought. Then he took a deep breath and gave his attention to Mrs. Sidfield.

Even though this school seemed a lot more laid-back than the last one, some things seemed to be the same no matter where you get your education. When you’re the new kid, who not only missed the first day of school, but also joined the class during junior year – two years from graduation – you have to get out of your shell by yourself, because nobody cares who you are. Not the perfect foundation for a friend- and companionship… Jiyong heaved a sigh and leaned back in his chair. Like in every other class there were groups; like in every other school there were cliques – no difference in this class. It wasn’t even lunchbreak yet and he already felt quite out of place – again! He looked around while waiting for the teacher to arrive. The first two classes were held by Mrs. Sidfield, the homeroom and history teacher. She was quite nice a first glance and Jiyong hoped it’d stay that way. Right now, the students around him were just loudly chatting with each other and didn’t pay attention to the new guy. Though it was also halfway his fault. Jiyong wasn’t really the guy to socialize much with people he just met, without a common interest or topic to talk about. Of course, he could ask about teachers or subjects – school in general – but he didn’t really believe that this would actually get them to warm up with each other… The only interesting person was the guy who set next to him. He had some headphones on and was attentively listening to something that Jiyong believed was the rhythm of a hip-hop song – though he couldn’t really figure out which one. He probably looked at the boy a tad too long, because he suddenly pressed a button on the MP3-Player that sat on his desk and turned towards Jiyong. ‘Damnit!’ Straightly starring at people wasn’t really the nicest way to get them to talk to you… And he didn’t even know the guy’s name! ‘Way to go, Jiyong! Pissing people of on your first day – great start of your school career!’

“So… you’re the new guy, heh? How’d you like the school so far? You missed the first day…,” the boy said after eyeing him for a couple of seconds. He had a clean voice, Jiyong noticed. Not like other guys their age who still had to fight with the last remaining voice changes or tried to make themselves sound “manlier” by deepening their voice. “Name’s Dong Young-bae – but call me Taeyang,” the guy – Taeyang – added after a second. “Ehmm… So far, I don’t hate it here. Haven’t seen much of the area yet, though. We just got there two days ago. That’s why I couldn’t be here yesterday…” Jiyong ran a hand though his hair. The whole house moving was definitely something he not wanted to repeat in the near future. It had been a stupid mistake, that the transfer-note got lost in the mail on its way to his Dad.  
“Why Taeyang, though?” he asked, “Doesn’t really sound like a nickname to me…” The dreadlock-head just shrugged. “My name is ok, I guess, but I just wanted a name that fits me better, you know? My mum calls me Young-bae, my sisters call me Bae Bae… And my friends get to call me Taeyang.” That surprised Jiyong a bit. He laughed and leant forward, still facing Taeyang. “So, we’re friends already? And here I thought I have to fight hard to find a buddy in class!” His seatmate gave him a bright grin and took of his headphones to put them into his bag. “Nah… It ain’t that hard to become my friend. Also, you seem cool – I like your style.” After that he turned back towards the front where a new teacher just put down his briefcase. Next subject was economics, or at least something similarly boring. Mr. Greagor introduced himself – just for the sake of welcoming Jiyong into the world of production, distribution, consumption and everything related to that. He seemed to be a couple of years younger than Mrs. Sidfield, so he was probably in his early forties, and already thinning out slightly at the top. He seemed to be a very orderly man. All his folders and papers were neatly sorted, and the tie he wore to his precisely ironed dress shirt never fell out of place. Well, at least Mr. Greagor tried super hard to make the topic ‘economics’ sound as much fun as possible. Poor guy.  
Jiyong had just started to write down some notes when Taeyang nudged him slightly. “I’m gonna meet some friends during lunchbreak – wanna join us?” Jiyong gave him a toothy grin and nodded once before both of them rejoined the economics-class. Maybe his first day didn’t start so bad after all.

The first half of the classes passed without difficulties. Now it seemed like every student in the whole school was close to starving to death. Jiyong had nearly been run over three times before he even reached the dinning hall. He’d lost sight of Taeyang right after stepping out of the classroom. Luckily the queue for food was moving quickly and he was able to get his tray filled fast. Finding his new friend and his companions was yet another problem. There were so many students sitting around, but no dreadlocks anywhere. The canteen was filled with hundreds of people. One corner was obviously reserved for the football team and the cheerleader. The people sitting on these tables had hoodie jackets with the school’s logo on their backs, and the girls were wearing their cheerleading uniform under their school clothes. Jiyong rolled his eyes. He’d never been a huge sport fan. Never even saw a game. Though, in comparison to his former high school, the sports teams here didn’t really terrorize other school clubs. At least they kept to themselves mostly. On another table some kids with Gameboys were silently sitting with other like-minded people; a few meters away a lot of girls were laughing and chatting loudly.

Unsure what to do next, Jiyong stood in the middle of the hall. The big rush was almost over and nearly every seat in the canteen was taken. He’d probably look like a lost idiot if he walked around searching for Taeyang – though he already felt stupid just standing right here with his tray in the middle of all these people. So, he either had the option to take a seat somewhere randomly next to some people he didn’t know and eat in completely silence, or he could search for his classmate in the crowd. Either way, he’d feel pretty awkward. It wouldn’t be the first time he ate alone. After the first time moving houses he didn’t really feel like he was fitting in. Maybe because he also went through some changes during this time – not only mentally but also externally. Some of the teachers would scolded him for his everchanging hair colors or when he made small changes on his uniforms. Other students payed him no mind most of the time – group projects were the very least they’d talk with him about.

Jiyong gave a low groan but walked around anyway. Looked like he had to spend another lunchbreak by himse– “Hey! Hey, new guy! Jiyong, where’re you going?” There he was: Taeyang, who just came from the serving counter. No wonder, he couldn’t find the guy! With a relieved sigh Jiyong walked towards his new friend. “I was looking for you. I nearly died getting here… Are the people always like that during lunchbreak?” The dreadlock-head laughed and signed him to follow. “It’s not always as bad as today, I think it’s because of the food – you’ll get used to it.” A few tables later he sat down next to a guy with thick light-brown hair, a kind smile on his face and… very slitted eyes. On the opposite side some other guy with darker hair talked rather loudly about something a rude teacher said to him. Jiyong didn’t recognized them from any of his courses so far. Taeyang greeted the boys and nodded to the empty chair next to the noisy guy, so Jiyong also took a seat at their table. “That’s Jiyong. He’s the newbie in class so I saw it as my duty to befriend him and show him around. This –” He pointed at the guy next to him “is Daesung, and this nag next to you listens to the name Seungri. They’re both sophomores in case you were wondering.” Jiyong greeted them shortly and they started their lunch.

After a couple of minutes of silently eating he remembered that he wanted to ask Taeyang something since the beginning. “How are the clubs here at Rosefield? Anything interesting in the music department?” At his last school the clubs had been rather disappointing – not enough funding for the cool stuff to work out and the couple of students who showed interest in the few existing clubs weren’t really the kind people Jiyong wanted to hang out with. Also, they probably didn’t share his interest in music anyway. He hoped that Rosefield was better – if not, this school year was about to get really boring.  
Seungri was the first to response “They cut some of the funding this year–” Well, fuck…. Same problem everywhere! “– so, the folk music club had to be dissolved and they couldn’t hire a new teacher for the Hip-Hop club… Aside from that we only have the marching band and the choir… But you don’t really look like that kind of guy.” “We never had a huge music department to begin with,” Daesung added, “but we can use the gym whenever we want, so that’s cool…” That wasn’t really what Jiyong wanted to hear. It seemed like he could kiss the idea of a singing and making music with a group of like-minded people good-bye.  
His disappointment must had shown in his face, because Taeyang gave him a small pad on the back. “Yeah, I know – it’s pretty sad – especially because the hip-hop scene is huge in this area! There are lots of smaller groups meeting up in the underground garages to make music together and stuff like that…” Uh, that sounded way better! “Really?” “Yeah, they always meet up after school. You’re interested in that?” At that Jiyong grinned widely. “Definitely! That sounds awesome!” Daesung gave him another warm smile. “If you want you can come with us after school. We want to meet a friend there anyway and set up our training plan.” “Training plan?” Jiyong looked at Seungri who seemed to be really excited about that. “You know, like band rehearsals and stuff like that, meeting for song research…” “The three of us and another friend started a group last year”, came the explanation from Taeyang who just stood up. Lunch break was nearly over, and yet the really interesting conversation had only just begun. He really had to know more, Jiyong thought, as he also took his tray and walked with Seungri, Daesung and Taeyang to get back to class. “What kind of group?” “Well, so far we just take music we like and cover the songs – mostly Pop, R’n’B and Hip-Hop, make our own choreos… Though we’re working on some original music and lyrics as well!” Seungri said. “So far, we managed to record a few ideas as well – Taeyang here has some pretty cool equipment at home!” That sounded super impressive – maybe… “Could I… you know… listen to one some time?” Jiyong asked hesitantly. Some groups didn’t really like to share their unfinished work – he knew that better than anyone. Until now, he'd only talk about his song-texts with Mari, who was his sister and just five years old.

  
The three boys looked at each other thoughtfully. Finally, Taeyang said “Well, we first have to talk about that with our fourth member. He’s actually a senior here… Though today he had no classes for some reasons… You’ll meet him after school eventually – you still want to come with us, right?” Jiyong nodded enthusiastically and gave them all a toothy smile. “Thank you so much, guys – you’re awesome!” Taeyang and the other two laughed at his enthusiasm kindly before the sophomores had to go to their own courses and the two classmates were left in front of the science lab. For the rest of the school day Jiyong was in a wonderful mood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this one :D I couldn't stop typing, that's why the chapter is out sooner than I though!  
> Please note that I have little to no knowledge of american high schools! The story takes places somewhere in the Stated - not in S.Korea. I just know to little about the culture there and schools and such :/ And sorry, if the characters appear OCC - I try to stay as close to their features as possible!


	3. OH MY FRIEND

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made some small changes in the previous chapter. Nothing plot-wise, just some more description :)  
> Enjoy!

When Jiyong and Taeyang stepped out of their class room after the last ringing of the bell, Daesung and Seungri were already waiting for them next to the door. Before they could leave the school though, they had to get Jiyong’s new school uniform. His new friends showed him the way to the school’s secretary’s office, and then waited outside while he picked up the garments. The Rosefield school uniform consisted of two short-sleeved shirts for summer and the long-sleeved version for winter – each with the school’s logo on it. There was also the blazer that had to be worn during official school activities and on Mondays for school assembly. Compared to the rather strict dress code Jiyong had at his former school, he’d easily be able to follow this one and still show a bit of his own style along with it. He put his new clothes into his backpack and left the building with the boys.

By the time the group stepped through the gate, the school bus had already left. So, they decided to walk to the underground garage, where the meet up with the fourth member of the boygroup should take place. It would take around 30 to 40 minutes to get there, but Jiyong didn’t mind. He had yet to see the area in the light of day, since he’d arrived at his family’s new flat by night, and his mother had taken him to school this morning.  
Apparently Seungri and Daesung were both living in an apartment complex just a few blocks away from Jiyong. Taeyang however was always the first one on the bus in the morning, because he lived on the outskirts of the district and was picked up first. Jiyong also had to take the bus from now on, though the bus ride would only take about 15 minutes.

At first glance the whole area consisted of a lot of high concrete buildings. Most of them were apartment blocks. The four boys passed many of them, while following the main street through the district. Rosefield High stood in the center of the whole suburban area that was one of many outlying districts of the capital. It’d take more than two hours to get there by bus, and many young people in the area were dreaming about leaving this place for trying their luck in the main city.  
After a couple of minutes, they walked by another school building; that was the middle school Taeyang, Daesung and Seungri had attended – the elementary school was on the other side of town. “So, do you also have nicknames your friends call you, like Taeyang here, or are these your real names?” Jiyong wanted to know while they were passing a fenced-in court where some kids where playing basketball. Daesung laughed and lightly slapped Seungri on the back. “Well, Seungri had to get a nickname, because he shares his name with our fourth member – Seunghyun. But he is the younger one, so…” Seunghyun, heh? That rang a bell… “– We said age before beauty, so he got to keep the name. But I actually like it better this way, so there’s no problem,” Seungri intervened. “You were still salty two weeks after, don’t lie!” The younger one tried to kick Taeyang in the shin for that comment, but the older boy just laughed and shoved his friend to the side. “So, you got some Seunghyuns as well, heh?” Jiyong said, “I knew one when I was in middle school.” “It’s not really a common name here in the area, so we’re pretty special to have two on the team,” Daesung chuckled.

Once they’d left the apartment buildings and the school district behind, more and more small and medium-sized shops could be seen on the side of the road. Some billboards stood on the side, music played inside the shops and many people where enjoying their afternoon and the sunny weather. There were also some business buildings with offices and some factories. Most of the people who lived here also worked in this area. That wasn’t really an option for his future, Jiyong decided at that moment. Aside from a small local radio and TV station, there were no recording studios – hence no way to make music as a professional or in a group. Also, this area was way to dull for his taste. Especially during winter or rainy seasons this place must be looking awful! He pictured it as a quite depressing environment for working – and a downright killer for creativity! Right now, with the nice weather and sunshine, this district didn’t seem half bad though. The community had tried a lot to make the town more appealing: there were multiple small parks and playgrounds, a mall close to the school district and the local church apparently also did a lot for their people. Not that Jiyong went to services regularly, but it was nice to know that his mother would find a friendly community here to socialize with.

By now the surroundings looked more and more rundown. The old billboards had outdated adds on and it showed, that this place was not really looked after. Many construction sites and lots of empty space could be seen in the distance. “Some local politician and administration want to build some high-class apartment buildings here, and a huge mall, too apparently. But it already took them years to actually make some decent plans, so I guess it’ll take them even longer to actually get started,” Daesung explained while they came across yet another construction site without any crew in sight. Then, after another couple of minutes, he pointed at the entrance for an underground parking garage. “That’s the one everyone is hanging out at. It’s not used much anymore, and some floors are empty most of the time. If you want to test out your choreographies and stuff or learn some new moves – that’s the place. There are lots of street dancers and musicians, that’s pretty cool.”  
Looking at the area they were in now, it was no surprise that the garage wasn’t used much anymore. There were some warehouses nearby and what looked like an empty apartment tower with a sign in the front, that said renovations were going to last five more years. In the proximity there was no other high building as well. The whole place really looked deserted – perfect for hanging out with people while listening to loud music and practicing dance moves. “We don’t usually train here. Sometimes it’s just too loud and we don’t really like to be watched while still trying out new choreographies… We use the unoccupied fitness room in the gym, because it’s the smallest and has a mirror wall.” Jiyong listened to Daesung interestedly. This group really had everything planed out. Hopefully he was lucky, and they would let him listen to their music some time later. Though he had no idea if they were any good, so he tried not to get too excited already.

  
As soon as they stepped through the entrance of the garage it got pleasantly cool. It was still quite warm at the end of August, so Seungri, Taeyang and Daesung had ditched their uniform shirts a while ago and were wearing simple tanktops now. Jiyong had taken of his jacket as well. Taeyang had been the first one to notice the tattoos. “Woah dude, that’s so cool! How many are there??” At that comment, the other two also wanted to see the ink on his skin. They had been very interested in all his modifications, so he had shown them everything. So far, he had gotten the dragon-ball tattoo on his shoulder and a few writings on both his arms. It was just smaller stuff that his parents were still ok with. He had bigger plans for the future, but right now he was content with what he had. None of the others had a tattoo so far – mostly because their parents’ disapproval. Especially Taeyang had gushed about getting some tattoos after school, at least that was his plan so far. Jiyong was really lucky to have “cool parents”, was how Seungri phrased it.

Jiyong had to grin at the memory of their conversation of just half an hour ago. These guys were pretty awesome so far: they had the same interests and hobbies and liked his style – great friend-material! Said guys were leading him through the empty garage, one floor down and around some corners. Music could be heard all over the place and the nearer they got, the more it showed that there were quite a lot of young people here already. Most of them were just sitting in groups, some still in their uniform, other had changed into more comfortable clothes, were already discussing dance moves and trying out some choreos. A ghetto blaster playing loud hip-hop songs stood on the side. The four boys stopped in safe distance to the blaring music.  
“Can you see him?” Seungri asked. “Nope…. Is he even here yet? We said 3:15pm, right? And we’re late – he should be here already”, Taeyang said looking around, apparently searching for their fourth member, Seunghyun. “I wouldn’t be surprised, if he actually forgot the time and shows up late… Wouldn’t be the first time…–” Daesung opened his backpack and rummaged around for something. “– so, I’m gonna give him a call.” “Don’t bother, he wouldn’t hear it anyway, he’s probably ‘occupied’ tight now.” So far, this Seunghyun guy didn’t really seemed to be a very reliable person. Jiyong was wondering, what Seungri met when he said ‘occupied’ in this cutting tone though. Deciding to not comment on anything, he just stood behind the three guys who were still looking around for Seunghyun. Daesung finally found his flip phone and was just about to dial a number, when Taeyang suddenly screamed “Seunghyun! Over here!” – the poor guy nearly dropped his phone by accident. The other sophomore sighed with relieve “Finally!”

A couple of meters away a guy with short black hair looked up at the shout and immediately grinned when he saw his friends. He quickly turned to the people he sat with and then walked over to the group. The closer he got, the more Jiyong could make out his face. Seunghyun was a rather tall guy with thick eyebrows and high cheekbones. “There you are,” he gave his friends high fives and greeted them enthusiastically, “I was wondering what took you so long!” Seungri nudged him with his elbow “We couldn’t find you, idiot! Next time don’t wait for us sitting around!” The taller boy just smiled and pointed at the group of people he was sitting with just minutes ago. “Sorry, sorry, I was just sitting with Kim and –” “Yeah, we know, whatever. Can we get back to business?” Taeyang dismissed the explanation and beckoned Jiyong over. “First of all, we wanted to know, if it’s ok with you to let Jiyong here listen to our original stuff. He’s new and –”

“ **Hold on!** ” it burst out of Jiyong. “No way!” O god – he couldn’t stop laughing – this was impossible! No way this was actually happening right now – that was too much a coincidence to actually be real! His friends were totally confused by his sudden outburst. Still grinning widely, he watched as Seunghyun eyed him as well – confused at first, but after just a moment of starring at his face it hit him. “Kwon Jiyong?” Said boy simply grinned even wider and was promptly caught in a tight hug from Seunghyun. Both were laughing like madmen. “I can’t believe it! How long has it been?” “About five years, I think. God, it’s good to see you, man!” Of course, Jiyong remembered exactly how much time had passed since they'd last seen each other – you don’t forget your best friend so easily! Seunghyun took him by the shoulders and looked him over closely. “Ji, you really changed a lot! Love the tattoos, by the way. And you actually bleached your hair!” “Told you!” “Ehm…” Before either of them could walk any further down the memory lane, Daesung interrupted their joyful reunion. “So… you two actually know each other already? From like… middle school?”

Seunghyun threw his arm over his smaller friend’s shoulder. “That’s right! Me and Jiyong actually went to the same elementary school, too, but didn’t really hang out until middle school. We even had most of our classes together.” “You were such a shorty back then – and now look at you!” Back in middle school Seunghyun had been one of the smallest in class, and Jiyong, who was an only child back then, had felt like it was his duty to take care of the boy. Looking at him now it was clear, how much time had passed, since they’d last seen each other: gone was the chubby little grade schooler. Who stood in his place now, was a tall, well build high school student with a bright smile and a pretty face. Jiyong felt how his heart skipped a beat and quickly looked back at his friends.   
“My family moved places and I left before the last year of middle school… Though I’m one hundred percent sure that we didn’t go to school here…” He gave his childhood friend a questioning look. “Did you move, too?” “Yeah,” Seunghyun said “I’ve been here since high school. I met Taeyang in the school’s hip-hop course, Seungri and Daesung followed the year after and we decided to build our own group.” He suddenly grabbed Jiyong by his shoulders and beamed at him. “Oh my god, you should definitely join us! This gonna be awesome! –” “Hold up a second! He joins us?” Taeyang stepped forward and made the taller one look at him. “He can’t suddenly join us, just because he’s an old friend – no offence, Jiyong.” “Yeah, right – we don’t even know if he’s any good!” Seungri threw in his comment as well. “That’s no problem at all! You know – Jiyong here is damn good at rapping! He ruled middle school basically! And – oh, are you still writing your own songs? That’d be so cool!” Said ‘ruler of middle-school’ had turned bright red and put his face in his hands. Seunghyun was extremely exaggerating. Yes, he had already started rapping during his early school years, but he had also been terrible back then! And damnit – he had forgotten that he had told his best friend about his note book with lyrics as well. “Seunghyun, shut up! That’s super embarrassing!” But the taller boy just walked over to his friends and put his arms around Taeyang and Seungri, who were obviously still skeptical about the whole situation, and the proposal their oldest friend just made. “Come on, guys! You won’t be disappointed – Ji is a great rapper and –” “You might be right,” Taeyang butted in, “but we still can’t let him join us that easily, we have no idea if he vocally fits our group! Also, you are our rapper. Aren’t two a little bit unnecessary?” It was obvious that the other group members wouldn’t give in that easily. He’d just wanted to listen to one of their songs, now Jiyong involuntarily became part of a heated group discussion.

He was about to interrupt the growing argument, when Daesung stepped up to his friends. “Why not give him a chance, though? I mean… maybe he IS actually good and makes a great addition to our team. Let’s give him a song, and he has to show us what he got.” The three boys paused and looked at their friend, then to Jiyong. The dread-head was the first to speak “Alright, fine. You get your chance.” He bent down to dug through his backpack and then handed the new guy a sheet of paper and CD cover. “These are the lyrics and the melody for our latest song idea. Try around a little bit and we’ll give you a listen tomorrow, alright?” Jiyong took the offered objects and looked at the paper. The text had been written on a computer and then printed out. The names of the group members were written on the side to mark their part. “You didn’t even ask me, if I actually want to be part of your group…” “What??” When he got the reaction, he wanted – four very scandalized faces looking at him – the boy burst into laughter and put the paper and CD in his bag. “Just kidding, I’d love to join you. Please go soft on me though, it’s been a while since I performed in front of people…” – understatement of the century! It’s been literally years, probably around his last year in middle school with Seunghyun, that he had other people than Mari listen to his rapping and such…

Taeyang relaxed and dug Jiyong in the ribs. “Now that this topic is settled, let’s go over our training plan and meetings. Does everyone have their schedu–” “Oh shit, that was today?” The other group members sighed. “You forgot it… Again?? We’ve each sent you a text this morning!” “I thought we would discuss it at the end of the first week,” Seunghyun looked at his friends guiltily. “And what’s more important than our group meeting right no–” “SEUNGHYUN, what takes you so long? We want to go!” Seungri rolled his eyes – his unfinished question got answered. “Of course, how could we forget…” Daesung and Taeyang also looked really pissed out of a sudden. The scream had come from a girl that had been sitting next to Seunghyun when they arrived in the garage. Now she was stalking over to the group like she owned the place. She was pretty, but the annoyed look on her face gave her a rather nasty touch. Her dark-blond hair ran over her shoulders down her back and her figure was very slender with just little curves. She also seemed to be older than all of them, so Jiyong wondered what connection she had with his old childhood friend.  
Said friend turned around to the girl, who was now standing in front of him tapping her foot impatiently and gave her an adoring smile. “Sorry, Kim. I’ll be done in a minute.” “I hope so – you see each other in school every day anyway, why you are even hanging out after?” She wrinkled her nose and shot an arrogant glance at Seungri and the others. Seunghyun gave her a kiss on the cheek, then he faced his friends again. “I’m really sorry, guys, but I already made plans. We’ll talk tomorrow, ok? And I’ll buy your lunch!” The boys all stood there with arms crossed and an angry look on their faces. “You really have to get your schedule under control, man,” Seungri snapped. “Yeah, this is important to all of us,” Daesung added. The oldest group member gave one last reassuring nod and then walked away with the girl on his arm.

“Bitch,” Taeyang hissed and angrily picked his bag up from the floor. Jiyong followed them out of the garage silently and listened to the boys venting on Seunghyun and this girl Kim. His assumption had been correct, she really was the girlfriend. “So, what exactly is this whole situation you have with Hyun and his girl?” Daesung and the others turned and looked at him like he asked an incredibly stupid question. That wasn’t really helping him understand, thus Jiyong just kept a blank expression on his face. Taeyang sighed and beckoned his friends on to follow him. “Let’s not talk about that now. I’m starving anyway. Let’s get some noodles. Then we’ll let you in on the spitfire Seunghyun calls his girlfriend.” “There’s this place right next to the arcade that has awesome ramen!” Seungri suggested.

While they walked to the restaurant the group remained silent. The mood only improved once they ordered their food and all sat down on a table. After a couple of minutes, Taeyang seemed less on edge and started to explain “Seunghyun and Kim have been going out since his second year in high school – at least as far as I know. He always talks about how it was love at first sight for him, and that she fortunately fell for him as well while they had calculus class together. Complete bullshit, if you ask me.” Daesung and Seungri nodded along affirmatively. “Everyone knows, that she only uses him for her entertainment and has no interest in him whatsoever. She’s in college now and looks down at us because we’re still going to school – just thinking about her attitude makes me furious!” He angrily stabbed his chopsticks in his ramen noodles and took a bite. Daesung took over “When he first told her about us making music and wanting to go professional someday, she laughed at him and said that that’d never happen and that he’s not good enough anyway…” The look on his face was more sorrowful than angry. Daesung was more of a caring type – though Jiyong had to admit that everyone would feel sorry for Seunghyun after hearing this story. “And he’s still with her?” he asked in disbelief. He felt sorry for his old friend, but also irritated by Kim. This was anything but a healthy relationship.  
“That’s the problem: Hyun is completely head over heels in love with that skank –” “– Seungri! Language!” “Sorry, Dae… Anyway, he’s completely blind to the fact, that she’s a bad person. She already absorbs most of his free time, so it’s hard enough to get him to our training sessions – but she also forbids him to talked about our music and our group when she’s with him… Though I don’t mind that, all that is none of her business!” The dread-head of the group pushed his empty bowl to the side and crossed his arms on the table. “At least he said no when she ordered him to leave the group. She acted pretty nasty around him for a couple of days, but then realized that he wouldn’t give in this time.” Jiyong could just shake his head about Seunghyun’s taste in women. Even back in middle school he liked that one girl in class that would bully him. He didn’t really learn much over the years, did he? Poor fool. “Anyway, let’s forget about her and Hyun and hang out at the arcade for a while!” Seungri jumped to his feet and pushed his friends towards the door. The rest of the afternoon was spend playing games and losing to Taeyang who apparently was an expert at car racing. But even through all the fun and laughter, Jiyong couldn’t shake of the slight sting in his chest.

It was after 8pm when Jiyong finally got home. His mum was nowhere to be seen, but the voices he heard from down the corridor suggested that she was putting Mari down for bed. The sun was just setting down, and the last rays of light were shining through the flat. His father worked a nightshift this week, so it was just the three of them tonight. Jiyong put his backpack into the living room, collapsed on the couch and put his arm over his eyes. God, he was tired! He grinned. This first day had been not like he expected: meeting an old childhood buddy, finding some awesome friends and – hopefully – a way to live his passion for music all at once! Now he just had to prove himself to be worthy of a place in their group.

He heard approaching footsteps and glanced up to his mother standing next to the couch. She seemed to be as tired as he felt. The way she looked at him though – arms akimbo – showed that she was slightly upset with him. “Where have you been? It’s past 8 already!” With a deep sigh, Jiyong sat up and smiled at her apologetically. “I’m sorry, mum… I totally forgot the time! I was hanging out with some guys from school and –” He couldn’t stop the huge smile that came with the memory. “You won’t believe who I met today!!” His mum seemed to be appeased enough with that explanation and was smiling at the happy look on Jiyong’s face. She was so glad that he had a nice first day at his new school. She had been worried, that Jiyong would be the outsider again, like in his last high school, and the middle school before that. Their family definitely had moved way to often, but now it seemed like they were here to stay for a while.  
“So, who did you meet today? An old teacher?” Jiyong rolled his eyes “No, mum. I wouldn’t be so excited about that! You remember Choi Seunghyun? From middle school? We used to hang out all the time.” His mum thought about the name for a second. Over the years, Jiyong came home with just a few kids his own age. Sometimes he’d bring some guys, who were a couple of years older then him. They went to concerts together and worked on his computer, making music and other things that she didn’t really understand. But she trusted Jiyong, he wouldn’t hang out with shady people, he was a good kid. The name Seunghyun did actually ring a bell though. “You mean this little guy with the chubby cheeks who spilled yoghurt on Mari on the day we brought her home from the hospital?” “MUM, that was me!” She laughed heartily and ruffled his hair. “I know, sweety, but it was just so cute how he took the blame when he thought we’d get angry.” Oh, yes. Jiyong had nearly forgotten about that – of course his mum would remember this incident the most.

“I was really thankful, that you had such a great friend back then, because you were an only child until Mari came. It was so sad to watch you two say goodbye.” She had felt very bad for her son, who had to leave everything he knew and all his friends behind for the sake of his father’s new job. Maybe that was the reason she and her husband gave him so much freedom – though she wouldn’t change a thing. Jiyong grew up to be a determined and hardworking young man, who had set himself a goal and enjoyed making music. She might not understand much of it, but she knew he was good. Mother knows best after all.  
“So, what happened to Seunghyun?” Jiyong stood up from the couch and hugged his mother tightly. “He’s a senior at Rosefield, mum. We met today after school and he recognized me as well.” His mum returned the hug just as tight and smiled warmly while her boy leaned down to put his face in the crook of her neck. He had outgrown her years ago, but right now he was just her cute little baby, who had found something he had been missing for a long time. Childhood friends are the most important ones, she thought and gently stroked Jiyong’s hair. Maybe he himself hadn’t realized it, but even though he had his music, and made friends here and there, Seunghyun had been and still was his best friend – ever! With him he discovered music and dreamed of a life traveling the world. To have such a friend back in his life now, was the best thing that could happen to a boy like Jiyong at this point. “I’m so happy for you, sweety,” she said softly. Jiyong lifted his had and smiled at his mum so happily that she nearly caught her breath.

After a moment of just standing in the middle of the living room silently, his mum gave him a peck on the cheek and walked over to the kitchen. “Please say good-night to your sister. I’ll make you some sandwiches for dinner, alright?” Jiyong ranked his fingers through his hair and walked down the corridor with his school bag in hand. After throwing in on his bed he walked up to his sister’s door. Mari’s room was already dark, and a slow melody came out of the small music box on her dresser. But as soon as Jiyong stepped into the room, little Mari sat up on her bed and tiredly reached out for her big brother to pick her up. He laughed softly and lifted her from her blanket. For some reason Mari fell asleep in his arms rather fast. So, it had been his duty to put her to sleep since she was born. Sometimes he would also sing to her, though tonight it was unnecessary – Mari was asleep in just two minutes of him slowly walking around in her room. He put her back to bed carefully and silently walked out of the room back to the kitchen to eat dinner.  
His parents had been busy today. This morning when Jiyong had left the house, the whole flat was full of boxes – some open, some half unpacked. Now, most of them, at least in the kitchen and in Mari’s room, were unpacked and the living room also looked habitable. In fact, most of the flat was nearly done. When Jiyong opened his own bedroom door though, all he saw was a mountain of boxes. “Fuck…”

Thank god, he had labeled them all! That made unpacking so much easier. Though that wasn’t really helpful this morning when he had to get ready and it had been hard enough already to find matching clothes. His pillow and blanket still had no bedding on and the shelves and wardrobe were also still empty. His new school uniform was the only thing that was neatly hanging on a hanger. Nearly all his clothes and accessories were laying around in his room and on the floor, but at least his computer and CD-Player were plugged in and ready to go. His notebook with songs and some musical scores had been safely tucked away into the depths of his closet. It was already dark outside, when Jiyong slumped down onto his desk chair. After a second of just closing his eyes and relaxing he fetched the CD and paper with lyrics from his bag. He loaded the CD and listened to the melody as quietly as possible. It was rather simple, but that applied to a lot of great and well-known songs. The title, that was written on top of the paper, made Jiyong smile – at first glance it looked really bad and unoriginal. Even Mari could think of that! Then he read through the song text once, then twice, then a third time; after he dried to sing and rap according to the notes on the paper. He was frowning the whole time. Some of the words didn’t really match the melody or just sounded wrong. The songwriter inside him cringed more often then not. The song itself wasn’t half bad, but it’d have more potential if he’d make some changes.  
The melody didn’t really need modification – it would also take too much time to work on it right now – but he could definitely do something with the text. Hoping the copying machine was quiet enough and wouldn’t wake up his sister, he sneaked out of his room over the corridor into his father’s office and made a copy of the song lyrics. He didn’t want to ruin the original in case the others didn’t like his ideas. As soon as he sat in his chair again he was crossing out, changing and adding words and parts, he tried out different rhythms, and rehearsed it a couple of times. Then, after nearly an hour of trying out, he finally brought text and music together. He had to change some words again, but so far, the results looked great.

Jiyong didn’t dare to look at his clock, that would probably wake him up in a couple of hours and way too soon for his taste. With burning eyes and heavy limbs, he dragged himself into the office and made copies for Seunghyun, Daesung, Taeyang and Seungri. Then he put the papers and the CD back inside his back bag, put on a beat-up, over-sized t-shirt and comfy shorts and crawled onto his bed. This was an awesome first day, he thought before he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this chapter so much personally! I had great fun writing it and I'm super excited to start writing the next chapter already! Let me know what you think :)


	4. LALALA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m terribly sorry for taking so long, but university is super stressful right now! Trust me, I’d rather work on this than on lecture-projects!  
> And here another note: Whenever there’s a song in a chapter and the band name Big Bang is used in the lyrics, I changed the lines – because they don’t call themselves Big Bang yet, so that wouldn’t make any sense, right? Just so you know :)  
> Also: Huge THANK YOU to the ones who wrote comments! I love them!

The next morning started with a very enthusiastic Mari jumping onto Jiyong’s stomach. The alarm hadn’t even gone off yet and the curtains saved him from the bright sunlight outside. His sister however was way more energized than Jiyong and giggled nonstop while trying to pull his cover off his body. After the long night of correcting the song and getting the lyrics right, this was definitely something he’d have liked to be spared from. With bloodshot eyes and a weary face, he shot his little sister a grim look. “Get lost!” he grunted as his disheveled bed hair disappeared under the blankets again. That didn’t impress Mari much, she continued poking her brother without batting an eye, already used to the grumpy Jiyong in the morning. “Ji-Ji, you have to get up~ Mummy made breakfast!” Right that second, the alarm on the bedside table went off and made the tired-out boy groan from under his cover.

  
He absolutely didn’t get enough sleep last night. He nearly regretted staying up so late, but the thought of showing his friends the new version of the song woke him up a little bit. He slowly opened his eyes and just took a moment to get his drowsy brain into working again. There were the sounds of his mother making breakfast in the kitchen, Mari was still laying on him, though she had stopped poking him by now and was just humming on top of him. He had set his alarm just on time to have about 30 minutes left to get to the bus stop – he’d really have to get up earlier in the future, so he could actually take a shower in the mornings. Today was no time left for that.

With a sudden, loud shout he pushed the blanket off and buried a very surprised Mari underneath. The little girl screamed and laughed as her brother picked her up and threw her over his shoulders. “You cheeky little brat think you are so clever waking me up before my alarm, heh? Show a little respect and let your big brother sleep in peace.” Mari was just giggling and kept on slapping Jiyong on the back as far as her little hands could reach. When he walked into the kitchen, Jiyong set his sister down in her chair and went up to his mum. “Morning, mum,” he gave her a kiss on the cheek. She was already dressed for her job at the local post office. A quick look at Mari confirmed that she was also ready to go.

  
“You shouldn’t stay in bed so long, now you barely have time to eat before you have to go,” she scolded and handed him a plate with pancakes and some cut fruits. Jiyong just smiled at her innocently and sat down at the table as well. “I’m going to pick Mari up from kindergarten this afternoon after work, so we’ll be here at five. Your father will leave around four, so if you are going to be late, you should talk with him a bit before you go,” his mother said, while cleaning up Mari’s plate and putting away the pancake mix into a cupboard. A short glance to the clock showed that Jiyong really had to hurry. He finished his food in record time and hurried to the bathroom. While he was getting ready his thoughts wandered back to the song. The lyrics might have been in need of improvement, but the melody on the CD had been great. It was really easy to follow the flow and get right into the song. He could already imagine Taeyang, Seunghyun, Seungri, Daesung and himself creating a performance for it.

His hair was still a complete mess, but he kind of liked it that way, so he didn’t put any products in. The uniform shirt fitted well and also looked good with some ripped jeans and black jacket. Luckily, he still got some minutes left before he had to leave, so he could spend a moment with his Dad. His father had always been very supportive of Jiyong and his ambitions. Maybe he felt bad for making his family move places a couple of times, and for not spending much time with them. But Jiyong understood. His Dad had a good job. They didn’t have to worry about money and lived a good life. Yes, it also meant moving a few times, leaving your old home and being the new kid in school more than once. Nevertheless, it was all for the sake of the family, and that he was totally fine with.

Slowly opening the door to his parent’s bedroom, he could make out a figure laying on the bed, soft snores were coming from it and the curtains were still closed. To not startle his father, Jiyong quietly tiptoed through the room and carefully sat down on the edge of the bed. His old man was a very light sleeper, so it didn’t take long until his Dad tiredly blinked up to him. “Morning, Dad,” Jiyong whispered, “I just want to say Hi before I leave for school… You good?” His father gave him a tired smile and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Good morning, Jiyong… I just had a long night,” he yawed, “But it’s good to see you. How was your first day?” Jiyong smiled brightly, “I like it there, already met some cool guys – and Choi Seunghyun from middle school!” His Dad hummed trying to remember the name while still being half asleep. “Was that this yoghurt kid?” The boy groaned and pushed his hair back. “Yes, Dad, the yoghurt kid… He’s a senior now and we’re going to hang out today.” “That’s good, that’s good…” Noticing that he had to leave already and that his father was about to go back to sleep, Jiyong stood up and put on his back bag. “How long are you going to be on nightshift?” “Hmm, just this week, then things go back to normal…,” came the drowsy answer. Smiling slightly, the boy bent down to give his Dad a kiss on the forehead and then left the room quickly.

His Mum was just about to leave the flat when Jiyong squeezed past her and Mari, pressed a fleeting kiss on their cheeks and ran down the stairs. “I’m gonna be home for dinner, bye~” was the last thing they heard before the door of the apartment building clicked shut. The mother gave a long sigh before locking the door and leaving the house as well.

He could already see the approaching yellow school bus in the distance, while he ran down the street to the nearest bus stop. There were a handful of students with the same uniform shirt standing there and Jiyong had no idea how full the bus would be. He still hoped he’d be able to grab a seat. No one payed attention to him now that he was wearing the school shirt; many had headphones on, others were silently starring in the air, eyes still tired, not ready for school yet and some younger kids chatted about some new Nintendo Game they’d discovered. Slightly out of breath, Jiyong looked around, but couldn’t make out Seungri or Daesung anywhere. Didn’t they say, they’d live just around the block?

Just a few moments later the bus stopped in front of the cluster of students and opened its doors, so he got onto the vehicle with the other people. Most of the seats were already taken, but then he caught Taeyang’s eyes, who sat at the end of the bus and made his way over to the dread-head. The boy took his bag from the seat next to him and Jiyong sat down gratefully. Taeyang also looked like he hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night: he was sitting limply in his seat with his head propped against the window, his eyes nearly closed, and he yawned a lot. The bus was just about to drive off, when two guys came running up to the doors and shouted for the driver to stop. Much to Jiyong’s surprise Seungri and Daesung stepped into the bus – completely out of breath – and walked up to Taeyang as well.

“Let me guess: Seungri overslept.” The two sophomores flopped down on the floor in front of Jiyong, because there were no more seats available. Seungri shot the dread-head an annoyed look and hit his knee. “Like it never happened to you before!” “Well, it happens to you _repeatedly_ , so…,” Daesung muttered under his breath – which got him another hit from Seungri. Grinning at their youngest member the boys settled down to enjoy the last couple of minutes until they’d reach the school.

  
“Isn’t Seunghyun taking the bus, too?” Jiyong wanted to know while they were entering the school building. “Don’t tell me he already got his driver license!” “Well, no, his girlfriend always picks him up…,” Daesung said, “But maybe he’ll take the bus more often now that you’re here – he was so excited that you two met again.” Jiyong grinned. “That’s right, you should totally ask him to hang out with you more – to catch up and stuff like that! Maybe he’s going to spend less time with Kim then,” Seungri suggested with a laugh. Taeyang just shook his head. “As if. Just one word from that girl, and Hyun leaves us hanging… again. I really hope, that he keeps his word and we can finally meet up after school.”

They walked up some stairs and stopped in front of the bulletin board, where the schedules for most of the classes were put on display. There were also some flyers for different school activities and clubs as well as the school regulations and the map of the building. “Hah, looks like Seunghyun’s classes start now as well, so he should be here already… I’ll send him a text, just in case,” Taeyang mumbled and pulled his flip phone out of his pocket. Jiyong watched while he quickly tipped a message and then turned back to his friends. “I can’t believe the school year just started and Hyun is already so sloppy with training. Maybe it isn’t such a bad idea that you join us, Jiyong – might bring back the old Seunghyun, who was crazy about the idea of making our own music together.”  
Seungri grimaced a little bit, “Now you’re just exaggerating. We’ll wait and see how it goes, alright?” The dread-head just sighed and shrugged. Whatever… Oh and Jiyong, how did it go with the song we gave you yesterday?” Now three pair of eyes were looking at him expectantly. ‘Great way to change the topic,’ Jiyong though and tried to think of a way to tell the boys that he tinkered with the lyrics and basically corrected the song. He nervously fiddled with the hem of his shirt a bit and said, “Oh, yeah... ehm, the melody was really good. And the song –”

He was saved by the bell that indicated the first lesson was about to begin. Jiyong relaxed and pulled his bag higher on his shoulder. “Let’s discuss this after school, alright? I don’t want to talk about the song so fleetingly.” His three friends looked a bit puzzled – what was there to discuss? – but then just shrugged and quickly looked at the bulletin board to check their own schedule. “Damnit, freakin’ algebra first thing in the morning!” Taeyang moaned. Seungri and Daesung also didn’t look happy with their calculus class. They all agreed to meet up in the dinning hall during lunch – hopefully with a Seunghyun who was ready to pay for their food – and then hurriedly walked to their respective class rooms.

Jiyong was getting tense. He was sitting through the morning classes trying to concentrate on the teachers, but couldn’t stop feeling nervous about lunch, when the others probably would to talk about their song. Last night he didn’t really think about the possible consequences. It wasn’t like he changed the whole thing beyond recognition. But know he wasn’t quite sure, if it was the best idea to audition for his friends’ group with the changed song they themselves created and put a lot of work in. Glancing at the clock on the wall confirmed that it was just about to ring for lunch break, and he was so not ready for that!

Taeyang didn’t seem to notice his nervousness – or he just didn’t comment on it – while they were walking to the canteen. “Oh man, the year just started, and I’m already done with math… It’s not like that stuff is really important anyway, won’t need it later on.” Jiyong just nodded along and looked out for Daesung and Seungri. Though surprisingly it was Seunghyun’s face he was met with instead. His old childhood friend was leaning against the wall, apparently waiting for them with the two sophomores by his side and Jiyong was again amazed, how much the boy grew up over the years. Obviously, his face went through some changes, but he also appeared to be way more mature than he was back in middle school – ‘Well, that’s what people do when they grow up, stupid,’ Jiyong thought to himself and waved to Seunghyun. He still couldn’t get over the fact that they actually met again! What were the odds that he and his friend would both move places and still end up at the same high school?

Seunghyun greeted him with a big hug and bright grin. “Still can’t believe it,” he said, “but you’re actually here! There is so much stuff we have to talk about, dude – how’re your parents? And little Mari? She has to be six by now, right? God, she must be so cute now, already was as a baby!” “Hyun, chill, you sound like my grandma when she meets with us on Christmas,” Seungri laughed and pushed his friends towards the line of people getting their lunch. “First, let’s get some food. I hope you got enough money on you, Seunghyun. You did promise to buy us all lunch after all!” The older boy sighed, resigned himself to his fate and payed for the food.

The hall was really full already, but luckily, they found some empty space for them to sit together as a group just at the other end of the dining hall. Seunghyun really wanted to continue their conversation (well, him asking questions mostly), so Jiyong basically had to run after him to the table to keep up with him. “So, how is everybody?” Hyun asked while sitting down. Taeyang and the others were still a couple of meters away and Jiyong smiled at them apologizingly before taking the seat opposite of his friend and answering the questions. “Well, first of all, Mari is still five, though she’s gonna turn six soon. Mum and Dad are fine – they both still remember you by the way.” Seunghyun’s whole face brightened up. “Really? They still know who I am?” Jiyong grinned, “Of course. How could they forget the yoghurt kid from five years ago?”

Hyun’s ears turned beet-red and he palmed his face in embarrassment. “Oh no, not that story!” Laughing at his friend’s bashfulness, Jiyong continued, “Don’t worry too much, it’s actually a nice memory my parents gave of you. Mum said that you were an awesome friend back then, so don’t hesitate to come hang out at my place whenever.” By now, Daesung and the others had arrived by the table and sat down next to the two boys. They didn’t really join the conversation, though they seemed to be really interested in what Jiyong and Seunghyun were talking about. “You never answered my question yesterday, by the way,” the senior said, “You still have your note book with your songs?” Jiyong pause his spoon midair. “You really wanted to write songs, right? I remember you listening to these old EPs and copying the lyrics… You hopefully don’t do that anymore,” Seunghyun laughed and looked at his friend expectantly.

“You write songs, too?” Taeyang asked, and Dae and Seungri also looked at him interestedly. “Well, … actually I’m just… trying around, you know? Nothing really exciting, just playing with words and phrasings…,” Jiyong said and shot an angry glance at his childhood friend, who completely missed it and just grinned widely. “Actually,” he continued while nervously pushing his food around on his plate, “I wanted to talk about the song you gave me yesterday…” The other boys gave him their whole attention; he took a deep breath and looked up to their faces. “I actually changed some lines in the song, because I thought it sounded better… And I would like for you to try it out with me after school.”

‘Here it is,’ Jiyong thought as he was waiting for his friends to react. ‘They’d either hate the idea or give it a change…’ He nervously peeked at Seunghyun, Taeyang and the two younger boys. “You changed the song? Why, because it was bad?” Seungri pushed his plate away from himself and leant back in his chair with his arms crossed. Taeyang also looked quite skeptical, Daesung’s face was just thoughtful. “I really didn’t change much, and I really liked the music you made for it, but there were just a few lines that…–” “That didn’t sound fitting?” Now it was Seunghyun who was questioning the whole thing. Jiyong sighed and looked back down at his half-eaten food. “Well, … yeah. All I’m asking is for us to try it out later, and if you don’t like it, then that’s that… Can we not discuss it here and just eat our lunch?”

The mood had shifted quite a bit, but for now the four boys seemed to have calmed down again. “It was you who brought it up first, though,” Taeyang said after a while. “Yeah, because you wanted to know about me writing stuff… and you already questioned me about what I thought of your song. I mean, there wasn’t a better timing than that…”  
For the remaining lunch period they ate in silence.  
“You know, Seungri was met with a rebuff this morning after calculus – again!” “Shut up, Dae!” Well, not in _complete_ silence.

After they finished their lunch and went back to class, Jiyong couldn’t stop the nervousness that was creeping up on him. Taeyang didn’t pick up the topic again after they stepped into the classroom and was now complaining about his sister, who apparently had just sent him a text. “She wants me to pick her up from a party tonight – like, really late at night! And she perfectly knows that I have to get up early!” Frustrated, he laid his head on the table and groaned. Jiyong smiled at his friend and patted his shoulder consolingly. “That’s so typical for her! She doesn’t want to call my parents, because they don’t like that she parties a lot…” “So, why not just say ‘no’?” “I’m scared that she might drive home even though she had been drinking…” “Would she really do something that reckless?” “I wouldn’t put it past her, actually…”  
Jiyong didn’t really know how to help his friend. He had been an only child for over ten years when he got his little sister. These worries Taeyang had wouldn’t be … relevant for him – at least not for a very long time. Jiyong shuddered with the thought about his little Mari actually being an adult and going out for parties. This was still so far away, but just imagining it made him want to not leave his sister out of his sight.

“So,” Jiyong asked hesitantly, “what’s the plan?” Taeyang sat up from his limp position on the table and pondered about a solution for a few moments. “Well, even at the risk of making her hate me for life, I will probably tell my Dad… Give him my phone, so when she calls he can pick her up…”  
The teacher stepped into the room and the conversation was cut after that. Jiyong still had to think about their talk for a while. He didn’t know his friends very well yet – hell, he didn’t even know how things had changed for Seunghyun! Ok, he actually had met them for the first time yesterday, but he really hoped that everything would go well this afternoon. He liked these boys and he’d love to be part of their group, get to know them more and such – become close friends.

After the last lesson of the day had ended, Taeyang led Jiyong to the sports area and the school’s gym that were located behind the main school building. There were a basketball court and a soccer field, where the clubs were training at the moment. “Don’t you have your own football field?” Jiyong asked while he watched some guys run rounds on the artificial turf. “I thought I saw some players yesterday during lunch.” The dread-head opened the door to the gym and waved at the groundskeeper, who sat in his booth and read the newspaper. “The school doesn’t have their own field for that, so they have to drive two stations with the bus to the one we share with the other schools in the area. You’re interested in sports?” “Not really,” he answered and took a look around. The gym contained two halls that were separated with a wall of fabric that could be lifted when a bigger field was needed. No one trained in here today though, because the weather was good enough for outside-practice.

Taeyang walked to the end of the corridor and then down the staircase to the lower floor. “Daesung mentioned it already, we’re using the small dance studio room with the mirror wall for our practice. It’s pretty convenient and nearly always empty, because it’s too small for the cheerleaders and the grannies with their aerobic-group only get in here Thursday evening.” They arrived in front of the studio’s door and Jiyong could hear the muffled tunes of some hip-hop song, which meant that the others were already in there. “You didn’t bring some loose pants or something for practice, right?” Taeyang ask and opened the door. Jiyong just shook his head. “No worries, today is only about your vocal abilities… and this ‘changing the song’-thing we need to talk about. But from now on you should bring a change of clothes when we meet up for training.”

Seungri was sitting on the floor next to the ghetto blaster with Daesung looking at his phone and Seunghyun stood in front of the mirror and made funny faces. All of them looked up when the two boys stepped in. “Happy to see you actually made it today, Hyun,” Taeyang greeted their friend and dropped his bag next to the others, Jiyong did the same. “Now, I’m really curious about what you did to our song, so if you could maybe show us… what exactly you meant, that’d be awesome.” It took Jiyong just a few seconds to pull the CD and the sheets of paper out of his back bag. He first gave Taeyang back the original lyric paper, then he handed out the copies of the changed song. “I didn’t change a lot, honestly. There were just a few lines that really didn’t fit and broke the flow. When I was practicing it yesterday, I even stumble over a couple of words which made me mess up time after time.” “Sure, you weren’t just tired yesterday?” Seungri asked skeptically and eyed the paper like it personally offended him – well, in a way it probably did.

Jiyong tried really hard not to show how nervous he was getting at the moment. It was as clear as day, that Taeyang and Seungri were not the biggest fans for the ‘new song’ idea, even though they hadn’t even heard it yet. With Daesung Jiyong was sure that, although he was also wary, he’d still give it a try. His biggest problem at the moment was Seunghyun. He really didn’t want to disappoint his friend – not after all the nice things that he said about him, and his (well, middle school) skills in song writing. Right now, the taller boy was attentively reading the lyrics and didn’t show any signs of approval or dislike – with was probably a good thing… At least Jiyong hoped so.  
  
“How about that: You’ll read through your lines and then we try it out once. I didn’t change the order you sing in, I just divided Hyun’s part and added myself in.” The boys were exchanging looks, some still skeptical, but then finally Daesung went up to the music player, put the CD in and walked back to the boys. There were a couple of silent seconds before the main track started, and Jiyong had been waiting for just that.

_I, I, I, I like the real sh*t_  
_You, you, you, you like the real sh*t?_  
_I, I, I, I like the real sh*t_  
_Me and my crew can only bust with the real sh*t_  
_We, we, we, we like the real sh*t_  
_You, you, you, you like the real sh*t_  
_All my peeps they like the real sh*t_  
_Me and my crew can only bust with the real sh*t_

_Rock many styles and never foulin’_  
_All together we are one no doubt and_  
_If you’re feelin’ uncomfortable,_  
_You can exit where you entered, baby, that’s for sure_

A short glance to Taeyang confirmed that he was ready to follow up without missing a beat.

_So many wild so many browsin’_  
_Ain’t no better, baby, that’s no doubt and_  
_If you wanna come and rock a show_  
_You can meet me in the center yo_

The chorus was a bit tricky, because if they just all sing it together it would sound pretty boring, so while Taeyang, Seungri and Daesung were singing, Jiyong echoed some of the lines. In his ears that sounded way better, though he had no way of knowing, how the others thought – he took their slightly surprised faces as a good sign.

_La la la~ everybody get ’em high_  
_It’s a party right now that’s why_  
_And we won’t stop – movin’ movin’_  
_La la la~ everybody get ’em high_  
_It’s a party right now that’s why_  
_And we won’t stop – movin’ movin’ movin’_

Next up were Seungri, then Taeyang again, followed by Daesung. Seunghyun was moving his head to the beat and rhythm.

_Closely, baby was doin’ her thang to me_  
_And I was feelin’ really quite lovely_  
_I can’t let anyone get in the way_  
  
_She told me I was all the man she ever needs_  
_Ain’t no one gonna take her love from me_  
_And I believed everything that she said_  
  
_She told me everything was gonna be fine_  
_Now I’m here and I’m near ’bout to lose my mind_

Now again the chorus – that was definitely his favorite part!

_La la la~ everybody get ’em high_  
_It’s a party right now that’s why_  
_And we won’t stop – movin’ movin’_  
_La la la~ everybody get ’em high_  
_It’s a party right now that’s why_  
_And we won’t stop – movin’ movin’ movin’_

What followed now was something Jiyong had been dying to hear. The name on the side and in one line of the song sounded like an artist’s name, and because Seunghyun hadn’t had his fair share, this had to be his verse. Oh my god! Jiyong would actually hear his childhood friend sing… or rap?

_Yo, I said move it (move it!) move it (move it!)_  
_We got it going on and we ain’t gotta prove it_  
_All you gotta do is get on up and hop into it_  
_The T-O-P is rockin’ never stoppin’ always down to do it_  
_Do it, do it, I know you wanna just move it around give it a pound_  
_Now tell me what’cha gonna do with it_  
_We’re the guys to party up in here!_

‘Fuck,’ he thought, ‘holy fuck’ – he really didn’t see that one coming! He nearly missed Daesung’s part over his astonishment. The song was coming to an end.

_She told me everything was gonna be fine_  
_Now I’m here, yes I’m here, tell me why_

And now the final chorus:

_La la la~ everybody get ’em high_  
_It’s a party right now that’s why_  
_And we won’t stop – movin’ movin’_  
_La la la~ everybody get ’em high_  
_It’s a party right now that’s why_  
_And we won’t stop – movin’ movin’ movin’_

The song ended, and the group stayed completely silent, just starring at each other with wide grins on their faces. “This. Was. Awesome! On the first try!” Seungri cheered and high-fived Daesung and Taeyang who looked just as excited as their younger friend. Jiyong sighed with relief and smiled at Seunghyun, who put his arm around his shoulders. “Good job, Ji! I think we all have to admit it sounds way better now than before,” he said and mussed up Jiyong’s already totally messed up orangy hair.

“Yeah, he’s right – the flow is just right this time and every word fits perfectly!” Taeyang said while looking over the text again. Daesung walked over to the player and took the CD out. “You really proofed you’re worthy to be a member of our group,” Seungri stated proudly and put his arm around Jiyong from the other side. The boy stumbled and nearly fell because of the combined weight both his friends put on him, but he couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. “Thanks, guys! Can’t wait to start practicing with you and work on some awesome music!” Seunghyun mussed up his hair again, “Neither can we, Ji-Ji, neither can we!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the story-telling is not to slow and dull. I’d like for this story to take a while to develop and build up. I have so much planed for the plot and I really can’t wait to get more into it, but I also love to get lost in detail sometimes, and just babble away… I’m sorry, but this is how it’s going to be^^”
> 
> You can also google the song if you haven't heard it before: LaLaLa english version (I personally like the korean one better btw :D)
> 
> Let me know what you think :) And maybe you also have some great ideas for some normal every-day-activities teenage boys in high school can do - like hanging out together? :D


	5. HOT ISSUE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You had to wait long, and now it's finally here! So sorry for the delay!  
> This is - again - a rather slow chapter, but I promise that the story will (hopefully) pick up after this. I still have so many things planned, guys!!
> 
> Have fun!

“So,” Jiyong said after a few moments of just happy, excited silence, looking at Seunghyun amused, “there is this name written next to your part of the song… You call yourself T.O.P?” His friend smiled sheepishly and rubbed his neck, “I thought the name was pretty cool when I came up with it a few month ago… Is it too much?” Jiyong shrugged, “Not really, I think it’s pretty cool. Though I was wondering: why you are the only one with a stage name?”  
Taeyang hit the senior slightly on the arm, “Because Hyun just went ahead of us! We don’t even have a band name yet and he’s already working on stage names for all of us – and uncreative ones at that!” “What’s bad about T.Y.? It fits you perfectly!” “No, it looks like these stereotypical names for character in a high school teen movie!” The dread-head stroked his hair back and looked at Seunghyun offendedly, “I’m not some jock in a silly drama. And I already have a nickname anyway.” Now Daesung barged in as well, face red with embarrassment, “T.Y. is still better than just calling me D. People would just make fun of me – like, ehm... dick jokes, and stuff...”

Not able to stop the laughter that broke free, Jiyong had to lean on the mirror wall holding his stomach. “You- You really... wanted to call him D? Oh god Hyun, that’s a bad one!” Seunghyun was getting sulky, pulling a face and crossing his arms defensively. “It was just a suggestion, no need to down me so hard!” Seungri also looked like he wanted to put in his two cents now, so Jiyong just patted his shoulder and tried to change the topic, still laughing at his friends’ small dispute. After all, they didn’t really need a bigger fight to start their cooperation. “Alright, alright – no stage names for you – at least not yet.” Pushing his hair out of his face and taking one last calming breath, he pointed on the lyric sheet in his hand, putting on a more serious face.

Jiyong might had never performed, or actually sang in a group, but he knew people who did. They needed years to perfect their vocal skills and technique. They told him time after time, “practice makes perfect” – as clichéd as it sounded but it was true. Maybe he should contact his friends who tried to make it in the city. But first he had to figure out, how much work Taeyang, Daesung and the others had already put into their group – that hadn’t even been named yet.  
“Back on topic: This song might be already good, but we need way more than that to actually become unique and even more important, we need more practice. So, what’s the plan?” The four boys sobered down again and looked at each other thoughtfully. “That one is actually our first song we worked on, but we have three more that aren’t done yet.” Taeyang said and rummaged through his back bag, “I have the lyrics with me, but there’s no music.” He pulled some papers out of the bag and handed them to Jiyong, who began reading right away. So far, he couldn’t really judge the songs. Most of it was still sketchy, but he could see where the words would lead to, they definitely had potential! The question was: would the boys let him work on the lyrics again? They liked his changes in the Lalala song, though that didn’t mean that he had the permission to intervene in their other work. Well, they could definitely work on the lyrics all together.

“We try to meet up for training at least twice a week, but we don’t really set dates in stone,” Daesung explained, “We practice some dance choreographies and talk about lyrics.” So, they were combining everything – training, songwriting, choreography-development – in one meet-up session? No wonder they weren’t getting anywhere! The orange-haired boy looked at the group skeptically, “Twice a week is not enough, if we really want to improve and even get to a level, where we are actually able to perform in front of people…” Did they even aim for a professional career? Or was this group just for fun, to experience with music together, like a hobby. He wouldn’t really mind either way. After all, practice was practice and he could always use it to get better himself to maybe eventually – hopefully – make it in the music industry.

Seungri sighed and sat down on the floor, Daesung also dropped down and the other boys followed. This needed to be discussed in greater detail. “It’s not like we wouldn’t stay here more often after school, but some of us –” he looked at Seunghyun pointedly, “have a rather busy private life, and just practicing with four people isn’t really effective for a boy group, right?” The oldest boy nodded along, while Taeyang just rolled his eyes. “Are you only training during the week? What about the weekend?” Jiyong wanted to know. The dread-head just shrugged, “We can’t get into the studio here when the school is closed, and we haven’t found an alternative yet. Though, we might get into an old dance studio on main street during some days.” Well, at least that was something.

If they met up during the weekends and work on the music selection, lyrics and group discussions, they could spend their time after school training in the dance studio room. Then it wouldn’t matter where they’d hang out. He was sure the others could make space in their weekend plans for at least one day – especially Seunghyun with his girlfriend. Leaning forward he looked at the group with a determined expression on his face, “Ok guys, how about that: during school days we train _at least_ twice a week – I’d rather like trice, and we meet on either Saturday or Sunday to work on everything that doesn’t require physical activities or a dance studio, stuff like lyric creation, group discussion and so on.” The other group members nodded along and seemed to like the plan so far, so Jiyong continued, “Cool, so that’s settled. Now, I remember you said, that Taeyang has some equipment at home that we can use to work on the actual melodies?” The boys nodded again. “My uncle owns an electronics store, so I got it for a good price. Though we probably won’t be able to work with it so much at my place. My little sister is a real pain in the neck and my mum is really sensitive when it comes to making too much noises… But the equipment is easily packed, so it doesn’t matter where we work with it.”

Jiyong grinned. This was getting better and better. The boys had already figured out one of the bigger problems that he thought of so far: making the music itself. There was no record studio near as far as he heard and if you didn’t have connections – like Taeyang luckily had – then it was pretty hard to actually create the melodies and beats for the songs and then record their audio. “Ok, Taeyang’s place is out; how about you, Dae?” The boy with the kind smile just shook his head apologetically, “I also have two younger siblings, who’d probably interrupt us the whole time.” “And my place isn’t an option, either. Both my parents work from home…,” Seungri said and then pointed at Seunghyun, “Though his apartment is empty all the time.” The older boy shrugged and agreed, “We can meet up at my place, if you want – just not on Sundays when both my parents are at home and want to rest.” “We can definitely work with that – that’s awesome, guys! My place is also an option, my parents don’t mind… And I will take care of Mari, so she won’t bother us either.” Jiyong fetched a pad and pen from his bag and wrote down all the info that they got so far.

“We should definitely meet every Monday after school to make the plan for the week. Is that ok for you?” The boys agreed with a nod. “Wow, Ji, you’re already so into it, planning everything and making schedules – like you’re our manager or something,” Seunghyun grinned and nudged him slightly with his shoulder. “Someone has to, if we want to improve, silly!” Jiyong laughed and nudged him back.  
Making the schedule for their first week appeared to be more difficult. Seunghyun admitted that he had been voted class president for his senior year, which was linked with duties and meetings for the upcoming graduation. Especially in the first few weeks there was a lot to be decided. He had also promised his girlfriend to see her after school often, so this week he basically had just one other day left for practice after school and that was Thursday. Also, because it was the first week of schools in the whole area, this Sunday lots of families celebrated the enrollment of their children into elementary school by going to church. Daesung’s little sister was one of them, so he couldn’t make it on Sunday. Which only left Saturday for the whole group to have their first group meeting for lyric creating.

“I’m… actually not sure, if I can make it…,” Seunghyun said sheepishly and ducked his head, already bracing himself for the furious reaction of his friends. Unsurprisingly, Taeyang and Seungri were the first who bombarded him with reproaches, while Daesung put his head in his hands and sighed tiredly, “Why isn’t that surprising at all…” Jiyong just groaned and let himself fall backwards, so he was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. “I’m really sorry guys – really, I am! But I might see Kim on Saturday and –” “It’s not like you literally see her every morning, and most evenings – and hang out with her and her friends at parties on the weekend!” Taeyang snorted angrily. “Not to forget that you spent nearly every day during the holidays with her – are you freaking kidding me??” Seungri added tauntingly.

Jiyong could already see the approaching fight coming up when Seunghyun opened his mouth to argue back – this was the last thing they needed just now! Swiftly sitting back up, he put his hand on Taeyang’s shoulder and shot his childhood friend a warning look. “Calm down, all of you! It’s just the first week of school, no need to fight over one meeting already! Hyun,” he looked at the senior sternly, “I know you want to see your girlfriend as often as possible, but you also understand, that this here is also important, right? You take this group serious, don’t you? So please, take some time off for practice and meet-ups…” Daesung and Seungri nodded along, Taeyang seemed pleased while Seunghyun just sighed and admitted defeat. “And you,” Jiyong pointed at Seungri and the dread-head, “don’t get mad so easily!”

After that their tempers settled down again, though there were still some low-keyed grumbling. With one last stern glance, Jiyong got his calendar notepad and marked the following Saturday as their first official meeting. “Well, you all don’t know where I live, so… Let’s say we meet at noon at my bus stop… which is also Dae’s and Seungri’s. Taeyang knows where that is, as well… How about you, Hyun? You know the place?” The older boy hummed, “It’s just two stops away from mine, I’ll find it.” “Ok, great. But you have to text us, if you really can’t make it then!” Seunghyun nodded affirmatively and Jiyong moved on.

“So, theoretically we discussed everything important for now – though I’d like to see the selection of songs you take inspiration from while working on your own lyrics… And the ones you train to as well.” Taeyang jumped up and mock saluted, “No problem, team leader!” Then he rushed to his bag and got his MP3-player, while his friends were laughing about Jiyong’s reddened face. The dread-head came back to the boys and connected the small device with a cable to the ghetto blaster. “Isn’t it a little bit inappropriate to call me that? I already feel bad enough to order you around like that, even though I’ve only just joined your team!” “Don’t sweat it,” Taeyang said while looking through the songs on his player. “You showed us that you actually take this here serious and what you did with our song also wasn’t half bad, so we take our chance with you. It’s not like we have anything to lose anyway, and so far, none of us really took the initiative and acted like a leader… You know, make decisions, actually plan our training sessions, stuff like that.” Daesung put his hand on Jiyong’s shoulder and smiled at him encouragingly, “He’s right. Till now, we weren’t really organized. We want to take all this serious, but what we needed was a person in the group that can keep a cool head and just…–” Searching for the right word, Daesung looked at his friends. “Just gets shit done,” Seungri said firmly.

Jiyong felt flattered, but still wasn’t quite sure, if they really meant it. Maybe it was because he had had the chance before to actually work together with other musicians – though he never performed in front of an actual audience and was never part of a team with more than two people – but he was used to have a structure in his work. A structure that had a schedule, a plan and a set goal. Seeing that his friends trained without much of a schedule and had no real structure within their training sessions just made him… uncomfortable in a way. On the other hand, he didn’t want to impose his own standards on others.

He smiled at Daesung and the boys mildly and turned towards Taeyang, who apparently found their training playlist. He started switching though different songs, most of them Jiyong recognized: The Backstreet Boys’ and *NSYNC, with some R’n’B in between, some hip-hop and pop-song remixes. The songs were ok, but not really extraordinary. Good for training sessions, but most of them were similar in style, not very unique. “My cousin tapes a lot of music shows on TV, so we can look at some performances other groups have,” Taeyang explained and zapped around some more. “Well, for the beginning that’ll do… and the videos might be a good source for inspiration and basic moves. But we should definitely work on your song lyrics just as hard as on the choreographies!” Taking in the words of their newest member, the group listens to another couple of songs on the player. For some they already had some warm-up routines and the Lalala song was now the next thing they would work on.

Checking his list of notes he had scribbled down during their discussion, Jiyong was sure that they had a pretty good plan so far: meeting every Monday for the schedule for the week, then two to three training sessions during school days, and then another meet-up on either Saturday or Sunday for all the non-training parts. “Alright guys, we meet up again tomorrow after school, you can teach me your warm-up routine and we start with the choreography for Lalala. If you like I can send you the notes of this meeting and the schedules for the week on Mondays via E-Mail,” he offered his friends each a piece of paper with his online address on, “Just write me there, so I have yours as well.” With that, the first meeting of the now five-member boy group was officially over.

Seungri and Daesung decided to go home right away and Taeyang took his leave to train at the gym on main street for the rest of the afternoon. Packing his note pad back in his bag, Jiyong thought about his own plans for the rest of the day. There were still clothes and other items lying around in his room, which had to be put away. His mum and sister weren’t home, though maybe he could spend some time with his Dad before he left for work. He looked at the clock on his phone. Damnit, even if he took the next best bus, his father would probably be too busy to get ready and leave the house. Jiyong signed and put on his bag.  
His hands flew to his chest and he nearly screamed out loud when he turned around – just to find Seunghyun standing directly in front of him, towering over Jiyong with a bright grin on his face. “Holy fu- Seunghyun, don’t do that! Nearly got me a heart attack!” His older friend smiled apologetically and put his arm over Jiyong’s shoulder, while the orange-head still tried to get his heart to calm down again. He’d forgotten how tall Seunghyun had gotten over the years!

“Sorry Ji, I was just waiting for you to get ready. Want to hang out on main street? There’re some cool music stores.” With a teasing smirk, Jiyong poked him in the ribs, “What? No date with your girlfriend today?” Seunghyun sent him a slightly annoyed look and poked him into the cheeks in return. “Very funny, really! Just because all of you can’t get a girl doesn’t mean I have to feel bad to have mine!” Still smiling, Jiyong tried to push fingers away from his face and walked out of the studio with his childhood friend next to him, “Alright, big guy, no need to get offended. Music store sounds great, lead the way!”

With that, the boys left the school’s gym and made their way to the bus stop. That reminded Jiyong that he still had to look up the schedules of all the buses. Yesterday they had just missed the one that drove through main street, today the two boys caught it just fine.

 

When Jiyong came home, he was just in time for dinner. His mother and Mari were already eating, so he just sat down and joined them. He was listening to his little sister’s stories from kindergarten just half-heartedly. His thoughts were still on the afternoon spent with his old childhood friend, listening to all kinds of different songs, laughing about weird folk music or discussing foreign artists. That was something they had done back in middle school as well, just spending time at the local music store, trying to imagine how their own CDs might look in the shelves, trying to find their preferred style of music to practice themselves. The time he had spent with Seunghyun had really lightened up his whole mood even more.

With his fork halfway to his mouth, Jiyong was starring into space, a smile on his face. Mari was already giggling and tried to get her brother’s attention by waving her arm in front of his eyes. “Jiyong, what are you thinking about so absent-mindedly?” his mum asked amused after another couple of seconds. The boy jerked back to reality and got red all over his face. “Nothing much,” he said and hurriedly took a bite from his food. Of course, his mother didn’t believe it, but didn’t broach the subject again.  
“So, what did you do after school?” The orange-head grinned and told his mum about the group meeting after school, the plans they made for the week and just… how amazing he felt about everything. “And I really hope we make a start on the other songs they’ve been working on. They all are really enthusiastic, but sometimes they get into fights over Hyun’s girlfriend…. They don’t really like her that much.” His mother listened to Jiyong and couldn’t stop feeling relieved. Her son already had been so happy yesterday, after making new friends and meeting Seunghyun after so many years. Now he could finally share his love for music with others and share his talent with the world – and she knew he was talented, she just knew!

“Well, she might not be a nice person, but as long as you don’t know her better, you shouldn’t judge her. Maybe the boys just feel left out, because Seunghyun is spending so much time with her instead of with his group.” Jiyong nodded and finished his dinner. Kim didn’t really make a good first impression, but he had already been influenced a bit by the stuff Taeyang and the others had said. Maybe she wasn’t actually such a beast. He could just wait and see, she was Hyun’s girlfriend after all – there had to be something nice about her.  
“Oh and after our meeting, Seunghyun and I went to some music stores on main street. You know, just like back in middle school. And did you know, that they actually have an art gallery here? It’s pretty huge! Seunghyun showed me around, but there were closing up for the day… He seems to like art a lot now…”

His older friend had broadened his horizons quite a bit over the years, Jiyong thought. Back in middle school they didn’t really do much aside from hanging out and listening to music together. Sure, they’d watch movies and play video games, go to the park and stuff like that, but that was just normal every-day stuff every kid on the block did. They were only children back then, who just figured out, what they were really interested in; music, yes, of course, but anything else? They didn’t play video games and decided that they would aim for a future in the gaming industry, but they listened to music and said to themselves ‘Yes, I want to get there!’ Everything else they did was just filling they free time with fun stuff… Now, a couple of years later, Jiyong figured out, that his personal style was – aside from music – really important to him. He didn’t want to look boring or just like everybody. Fashion, that was it for him.

Every person needed something, that shaped their personality, something that was maybe not directly related with their career goal – at least that was what he himself believed in. For Jiyong that kind of turned out to be fashion, though he still was working on his style… So far, he couldn’t exactly be sure yet – and he’d need more time to explore his theory, but just by the way Seunghyun had been able to explain different art pieces to him, Hyun’s passion for art was this “something”, that’d shape his personality – along with the music of course. While thinking about that, Jiyong started wondering what passions Daesung, Taeyang and Seungri had, that made them into the individual personalities they were. O god, he’d just been here for two days, and already couldn’t wait to learn more about his friends and get to know them better. Maybe his mother was right, and he had been without close friends for a bit too long… - not that he had no friends at all, but they lived far away and most of them were a couple of years older then him… He really had to spend more time with people his own age…

“So,” his mother suddenly started and made Jiyong nearly drop his fork, “sounds like you had a great time today. You really should bring your friends over one day, so I can meet them. Oh, and I really want to see how Seunghyun changed over the years! Is he still a bit chubby in the face?” Jiyong smiled kindly at his mum while he stood up and put the empty dishes and cutlery into the dishwasher. “You’d probably not recognize him at first, Mum. He changed over the years – even I had to look twice before I saw the similarities! And he’s tall now! Must be around Dad’s height.” His mum looked at him astonished, “He really changed over the years, huh?”  
Jiyong laughed and gave her a kiss on the forehead, Mari as well, who was munching on a piece of apple, not really caring about this guy her brother was talking about, and who she didn’t knew at all. “Mum, I also changed over the years, you just don’t really see that.” He threw his back bag over his shoulder and left the dining room to go to his bed room. He really had to clean up the remaining clothes he hadn’t packed away yet. “Oh, I know you changed,” his mother called after him, “I had to listen through all your rap-practices over the years! Thank god, you do better now than years ago!”

That night, Jiyong had his first dream about his middle school years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think :)  
> See you soon!


	6. HOW GEE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me forever, but the new chapter is finally done! Enjoy!

_“Ji, this one totally looks like you!” The CD cover Seunghyun was holding up showed a man in his forties in a bright blue jacket that looked like it was made out of pure glitter. His hair was gelled way too much and the huge toothy smile he was wearing seemed too fake to be true and honest – a crooner, obviously. Jiyong took one look at the picture and immediately threw a fake-offended look at his best friend, “Like hell!” The older boy laughed and put the CD back on its shelf. They were rummaging through different sections in the shop, hoping to find a cool new artist to listen to. So far, they hadn’t had any luck._

_“Man, this sucks! It always takes so long for new stuff to come in!” Seunghyun whined after he had found yet another EP he already heard before. Jiyong gave him a small smile and then continued looking through some second-hand CDs. “Well, we come here nearly every day, so it’s really not such a big surprise we never find anything new…,” he said while reading the lists of songs on the back of one old hip hop album of a group he hadn’t heard of before. Groaning because he knew Jiyong was right, Seunghyun walked down the aisle and flopped down on the battered couch, that was standing in the corner of the shop right next to some music magazines. “Yeah, you’re probably right… We should really look for new shops to hang out at…” He grabbed the newest edition of ‘Music Today’ and flipped through the pages lazily. Jiyong looked at him for a few seconds and quietly laughed about his friend’s sluggish posture, then turned back to the CDs._

_He really liked, that they had some older EPs here as well; some of them were great and especially the hip hop and rap music in this section was the best stuff he had heard so far! It really gave him an idea what kind of style he liked, and also inspired him even more to try out this kind of music for himself… Though he knew he wasn’t really good – yet! ‘Practice makes perfect’, that was something a local girl always said to him. She was just a couple of years older than him, and in high school, but she already went to some auditions and talent shows the local radio station had held. She was pretty good and Jiyong really hoped she’d make it one day!_

_He was distracted from his browsing when he heard Seunghyun call his name from his seat on the sofa. “Ji, hey, Ji, come over here! Look at this!” He took a hold on the two CDs he had found so far and walked to his friend. “What got you so excited, Hyun?” His friend pointed at an article in the magazine he had been reading and nearly shoved it in Jiyong’s face. “Look here, Ji! Doesn’t this sound awesome?” The boy looked at the page confused and took a step back, so he could read the text. It was about a newly founded entertainment company that also operated as a record label, talent agency and music production company. The founder apparently was a former rapper – which was cool and all, but Jiyong didn’t really understand why his friend was freaking out like that._

_“Looks cool…,” he said slowly, “But what’s the big deal? Companies like that exist everywhere… And this one is located in a city pretty far away from here, too…” Seunghyun could just shake his head about his friend’s lack of understanding. “Gosh! Jiyong, you didn’t read it all! They say that they look for young talents to train!” He pointed at a small paragraph in the article. “They are looking for trainees, Jiyong! Trainees! We could be that!” He pointed at another picture, this one was showing the founder of the company and a girl group standing around him. Jiyong actually knew their name. They were hot in the charts at the moment._

_It wasn’t the first time Seunghyun had tried to convince him to go to a casting with him. But that was definitely not something he was willing to do right now. Jiyong laughed and took the magazine out of Seunghyun hands. “You know that we can’t do that, right?” The older boy pouted and looked his friend in the eyes fiercely. “But we totally should!”  
Knowing that Seunghyun wouldn’t stop talking about it if he didn’t burst his dream bubble, Jiyong signed and sat down next to his best friend. He leant back in the soft cushions and looked at the ceiling. “We both know that this won’t happen any time soon, Hyun,” he said calmly, “Both of us never even sang anything good. We don’t even know what kind of music we want to make – we don’t even know if we are any good!”_

_Seunghyun next to him just stared into the distance, or more likely at some band posters that were hanging on the wall. Jiyong looked at his friend, “And we both also know, that our parents would never allow it.” The older boy snorted and leant back into the couch. “As if that would stop me…” Jiyong chuckled and bumped his shoulder against Seunghyun’s. “Yeah, I know… But we’re only just in middle school! We still got some time, don’t you think? To at least… make some music together until we rock those people in the agency?” That actually made Seunghyun smile and he looked at his friend, this time with a reassured expression on his face. “You’re right, Ji-Ji… Like always.”_

_They smiled at each other for a moment, then Seunghyun stood up with a sign and grabbed his back bag. “Come on, let’s go and look for another place. Maybe they got some new cool stuff.” Jiyong held up the CDs he’d found and pointed at the cashier, “I need to pay for these real quick, wait a sec.” The older boy looked at the EPs interestedly and nodded.  
After that, the boys left the music store they had spend the last two hours in and walked down the street. After a couple of minutes Seunghyun turned to Jiyong and asked genuinely, “Do you think we will ever get the chance to become rappers… or something at all?” Taken aback by his friend’s seriousness, Jiyong took a few seconds to answer. But then he gave his best friend a toothy grin, “Sure thing, Hyun. We’re way too awesome to go to waste!” The last thing he heard was Seunghyun’s bright laughter._

_-_

He slowly opened his eyes and drowsily looked around. Rays of sunshine were falling into the room, but it still felt way to early for Jiyong to actually wake up. He groaned and turned his back to the window. Then he stared at the wall. Getting back to sleep was impossible though, because this dream was still running through his mind like a movie. He had totally forgotten about these days back in middle school – well, not totally forgotten obviously, but it wasn’t something he thought about very often. Maybe because it already had been years since he last went to a music store with a good friend. Nowadays he just went alone more often than not. Back then it had been a daily routine for the two of them. ‘I wonder if Hyun still went to these shops after I left…,’ Jiyong thought, signed and turned to lay on his back. Great, now he was awake completely.  
A quick glance to his alarm clock confirmed that he still got time to catch up on his sleep… He yawned and sat up in his bed. If he couldn’t find any more sleep, he could as well take a shower. Still a bit bleary-eyed he left his room and walked down the corridor to the bathroom. His dad was sleeping, but he could hear his mother in the living room, Mari would probably wake up soon as well. Jiyong took a towel from one of the shelves and left his sleeping clothes on the floor.

The warm water felt amazing and after the last two days without taking a shower it was great to clean up. Signing he held his head under the showerhead and tried to wake up some more. While he was standing there his thoughts drifted back to the dream – or rather back to the memories. Back in the days Seunghyun and he had talked about making music together all the time. They’d read everything they could find about castings and the music business, made secret plans to skip school one day and just go to an agency to try out for a place in their company. Oh, they were naïve back then!  
While washing his hair, Jiyong had to smile slightly at their simple mindset… It was probably for the best, that they never really had had the guts to take the bus to the next big city and go to a casting. Not even today, after years of talking with other musicians and writing songs, experimenting with different music styles and finding the right ones, he wasn’t trusting his own abilities to go to an agency.

After he finished his shower, Jiyong tied the towel around his hips and walked back to his room. His mum was now in Mari’s room and the little girl was already way to enthusiastic for Jiyong at this early hour. He closed the door and picked his clothes for the day. This week had been pretty warm so far, and it probably would stay this way today. He could wear his uniform shirt from yesterday for another day before it had to be washed, and the ripped jeans were alright as well. Aside from his jacket and his shoes he couldn’t really show his style much – still better than his last school, though! After he put on the shirt and yeans, he went to the kitchen table where the newspaper and weather forecast were laying. The hot weather would stay with them for at least two more days. It was way to warm for his jackets which only left his sneakers to show at least a little bit of individuality. Looking at the temperature Jiyong groaned and walked into the kitchen to make himself breakfast.

Just as he was munching his cornflakes, his mother and Mari stepped into the kitchen area as well. “Glad to see that you didn’t need Mari to wake up today,” his mum said while she made some toast. “Did you sleep well?” Helping his little sister onto her chair, Jiyong just shook his head nixing. “Woke up to early. I had a dream that took me way back to middle school.” His mother looked up slightly surprised, “Oh, really? Why’s that?” “Probably because … like, memories come back, because I met Seunghyun again, I think… You remember, when we went to music stores all the time?” His mum hummed and put some more breakfast on the table before she sat down as well. “You spend all your allowance on CDs and magazines. Of course, I remember that!” “Hey, I still have most of that stuff to this day, so it’s not a waste of money!” His mother laughed and patted his cheek. “Whatever you say.”

After a while of silently eating breakfast, Jiyong remembered something. “Mum, is it ok, if I bring my friends here on Saturday? We want to work on some music.” “Your school friends or your city friends?” “Actually, it’s the group I’m part of in school – you know, the one where Seunghyun is part of, too.” His mum smiled at the thought of Jiyong having a whole group of friends, then her face turned thoughtful. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Your father decided that he wants to see more of the city when the sun is actually up, so we are going to the mall and walk down the main street on Saturday. You’ve probably seen much already, but me and your father – and Mari as well, haven’t had the chance yet. So, don’t worry about bothering us.” Jiyong looked a bit disappointed. “But then you won’t meet Seunghyun and the others!” “Don’t worry,” his mother said kindly and took his empty cereal bowl to the kitchen, “They will probably visit again, right? We will meet them all sooner or later.”

Looking at the clock, Jiyong saw that he still got enough time left to style his hair today – though he doubted that his hairdo would actually make it through the day. The warm weather and the training session after school would definitely destroy whatever masterpiece he’d create now. Nevertheless, he wanted to look good at least for the first half of the day. It’d be great if it’d last until lunch. Back in the bathroom all his products actually had they own drawer. ‘Thanks, mum!’ Fishing out the styling gel he turned his head from side to side, examine his hair. He really needed to refresh his coloring, but should he keep the red, or try something different? It’s been a while since he had his natural brown hair, but it’d take a while for that. He hair growth was pretty fast, but he’d still have to tint his hair brown until the dye had grown out. But he also wanted to try some more vivid colors, like blue or white blond, green – so many choices! Though he doubted that the school would allow the really intense ones… They hadn’t said anything about his washed-out orange – once red – hair. They would accept blond, black and the usual colors as well, but blue was probably not the best idea – for now!

Styling his hair so it looked like he had just run his fingers through it to get it out of his face, Jiyong spent a couple of minutes in front of the mirror, concentrating on his task. It had to look casual, not like it’d actually taken him nearly ten minutes to find the right style. By the time he was done, he just had enough time to grab his back bag and say good-bye to his mum and sister. He left the jacket in his room and was just about to leave, when he remembered his change of clothes for their training session. ‘God damnit, not now!’ Jiyong though while he hurriedly pushed shorts, a tank top and some old pair of sneakers in another bag. Then he ran to the front door, and – just like the day before – gave his mother and sister a kiss before running down the stairs and out of the house. His mother just sighed and rolled her eyes at Jiyong’s time management.

The boy himself was walking down the road to the bus stop – at least no need to run this time – when he spotted Daesung and Seungri in the group of students waiting there already. So, their youngest friend had actually managed to be on time today. When they saw Jiyong approaching them, they smiled and waved at him. ‘That’s a good start of the day,’ he thought and joined the two sophomores. The bus arrived just a couple of minutes later. Taeyang was napping on his seat in the back of the bus, so the boys just sat down on the seats next to the dread-head – this time everyone got a one luckily.

Just when they arrived in front of the school gate, Taeyang was woken up by his phone’s ringtone. He groaned and scratched his head sleepily, while he pushed his bag up his shoulders. “Was that an alarm to wake you up on time?” Daesung ask and got off the bus with his friends. Taeyang flipped his phone open and shook his head. “Nah, it’s a text from Seunghyun. Says he can’t meet us now, because he got a meeting with the graduation committee for the ceremony… He’ll be there for lunch break though.” He put away his phone and walked to the bulletin board, the other followed him. “Man, it’ll take me weeks to remember my schedule,” Jiyong muttered. “Same,” Seungri said and looked at his time-table. Today was probably the most creative day of the whole week: Art, Music and English Literature had always been Jiyong’s favorites. Thursday was definitely a good day.

The first ring of the bell sounded through the whole building, so the boys waved goodbye with the agreement to meet again for lunch. Jiyong and Taeyang were walking to their class room, when the orange-head remembered their conversation from the day before. “So,” he started hesitantly, “what happened with your sister yesterday? I mean, with picking her up from that party…” Taeyang looked at him thoughtfully for a second, then he signed, “I told my dad, she’d go to a party and gave him my phone. As expected, she called me in the middle of the night and was picked up by my father.” “Did you hear it, when she called?” “No, but I woke up, when they got back home...” Taeyang’s silence after that made it obvious that something had happened then. Jiyong nearly didn’t dare to touch on the topic again.

They sat down on their seats and the orange-head turned to his friend and leant forward to give them some more privacy, since more and more students walked into the room. “What happened?” Taeyang propped his head up and looked at his friend tiredly. “She put up a huge fuss, shouted and probably woke up the whole building – she was drunk obviously. My dad is a really calm guy, you know, so he didn’t shout back at all, but he couldn’t get her to calm down neither.” Quite a bit baffled, Jiyong tilted his head to the side, “Why did she attack your father? She was the one who partied too hard after all…”

Taeyang groaned again rubbing his eyes tiredly, “As if! She was so wasted that she couldn’t remember that she’d called to be picked up – and then she was furious when dad ‘took her away’ from the party” He used quotation marks on that one and was clearly rather pissed off with his sister. “My mum woke up then and got really angry with my sister as well… It was awful!” “I bet…” The second ring of the bell interrupted their conversation. Jiyong had no idea how much the others knew about Taeyang’s problematic sister, so he wouldn’t feel comfortable to pick that topic up again during lunch. Still, maybe talking about it might make the dread-head feel better – although Jiyong also didn’t want to overstep his boundaries. “We can talk about it later, if you want?” he whispered to Taeyang when their art teacher Mrs. Smirnow came in and started calling the roll. The dread-head gave him a small smile and nodded, before they turned their heads back to the teacher.

After the two art lessons, Jiyong was 100 percent sure that these hours were definitely the best part of the week. Social Studies and music were awesome as well. Still, Jiyong was glad when it was lunchbreak. Daesung and Seungri waited for the two juniors at the entrance to the canteen.

Seunghyun was already there and saved them a table. He greeted them with a smile and then turned his attention to a stack of papers in front of him. “What’s all that?” Daesung asked interestedly and peeked over Hyun’s shoulder. The older boy groaned and took a bite of his sandwich. “The first ideas for the graduation theme and the first calculation for the costs… Completely underestimate of course! My classmates are really just a bunch of idiots sometimes!” The younger boys nodded sympathetically and started eating as well. “How come that you were voted as class president?” Jiyong ask after a while, “Last time I remember you taking some responsibility was in second year in middle school when you took in the class’ goldfishes over the summer break… And I know you had to buy new ones because you forgot to feed them!” Taeyang and the others laughed and Seunghyun grinned sheepishly, “You still know that, heh? Never took care for another fish, that’s for sure…” Then he signed and put the papers into his back bag. “My teacher knows that I was class president in my final year in middle school, so he asked me to oversee the preparations for this graduation as well…” “You were class president in middle school?” Jiyong was flabbergasted, “You? Really?” Seunghyun was rather amused about his childhood friend’s astonishment and smiled proudly. “No need to sound so surprised! After you moved away, I had too much free time and got bored… So, I helped the graduation committee… and ended up becoming class president.” Still quite surprised about his older friend Jiyong couldn’t stop the laughter and clapped Seunghyun on the shoulder. “Wow, you really pulled yourself together for that, heh? That’s amazing, Hyun! I’m proud of you!”

Seungri, Daesung and Taeyang had listened to the conversation with interest, now the youngest group member piped up, “What was Seunghyun like? In middle school, I mean.” The boys looked at Jiyong expectantly, while their oldest schoolmate just rolled his eyes, but couldn’t stop himself from listening curiously to his friend as well. The orange haired boy had a thoughtful look on his face and mused about the question for a few moments. “Well,” he said finally, “Seunghyun always seemed to be very independent, like he could take care of himself just fine. We weren’t classmates in elementary school, but I always saw him walk to school all by himself – which I thought was pretty grown up.” ‘He also seemed to be a bit lonely, to be honest…,’ Jiyong thought, though he wouldn’t say it out loud. “We only started sharing classes in middle school, and then we basically were joined by the hip.”

_It was only the first day of school. Most of the lessons were just introductions of the teachers and the new subjects for the new middle schoolers. Jiyong was walking over the schoolyard during lunchbreak, looking for a good place to eat his lunch, when he heard the laughter of multiple kids, who were standing around the corner of the school building. Not thinking much about it, he wanted to walk past them, when he caught a glimpse of dark hair and teary eyes. Without thinking about it, he abruptly walked over to the boy. Jiyong recognized him from a few of his classes. He’d known him from elementary school as well, though he didn’t remember his name. As he came closer to the scene he could hear one girl talking quite snappishly to the boy, who was surrounded by the kids and looked like he felt really uncomfortable. His teary eyes just confirmed that._

_“You’re such a fatty, Seunghyun –” Ok, now he knew the name. “Nobody wants to play with a kid like you – we’re not in kindergarten anymore! You’re such a crybaby.” Jiyong had finally reached the group of kids that were laughing at Seunghyun and pushed through them to stand next to the upset boy. He faced the nasty girl and gave her the evil eye. “What are you doing to him? Don’t you see that he’s uncomfortable?” The other boy looked at Jiyong surprised, though he didn’t seem to recognize him. “What's it to you?” the girl said and crossed her arms over her chest. “He just wanted to play with you, right? Why are you making fun of him?” The girl and a few others laughed at that, which made Jiyong even more angry. “As if we’d play with someone like him! He couldn’t keep up with us anyway. And we are in middle school, playing is for babies!”_

_Seunghyun stared down to the ground. He seemed to be very embarrassed and looked like he’d run away any second. Jiyong huffed angrily and took the other boy by the arm. “You know what? We don’t need your nasty attitude! I hope you get a papercut!” Then he walked out of the circle of kids, pulling Seunghyun with him. They walked around the corner, until the kids were out of sight and went to a bench just a couple of meters away. None of them said a word for a while, but at least Seunghyun calmed down again._

_“Ehm, thanks…,” the boy mumbled eventually and gave Jiyong a small smile, “I didn’t really know what to do…” Jiyong leaned back and looked at Seunghyun questioningly, “Why were you with them anyway? They don’t seem to be nice…” The other boy just shrugged and looked away. Only now Jiyong saw that he was holding a small lunch box in his hand. “You wanna eat lunch together? I’m starving!” He pulled his own lunch out of his bag, pulled out his sandwich and looked at the boy expectantly. Seunghyun was surprised, but then gave him a toothy smile and unpacked his lunch as well. “I’m Jiyong by the way. You’re Seunghyun, right? That girl called you that.” The boy nodded. “Yeah, that’s me… I didn’t want to eat alone, so I asked Annie if I could sit with them… Didn’t went well…” Jiyong cocked his head. “You could have asked me, I’m in your class actually.” “Really? Oh.” Seunghyun was embarrassed, but Jiyong just laughed and bumped his shoulder against Seunghyun’s. “Don’t worry, it’s ok. I just remembered your face from elementary school, so…” “We went to the same elementary school, too? That’s cool!”_

“We became best friends pretty fast after that. We spent every lunch break together. And we hung out after school.” “You didn’t really have to tell them that story! That was the worst first day in school I ever had!” Seunghyun stood up from the table, empty tray in his hands and waited for the others to follow. Taeyang and Seungri were still grinning at the image of poor small Seunghyun who was saved by Jiyong, while Daesung made a thoughtful face. “Why didn’t you tell a teacher? That girl was bullying you!” Jiyong shook his head. “Nah, wasn’t really worth it. After that we pretty much ignored her all the time, which got her frustrated and she took it out on other students – and there the teachers actually caught her in the act.” ‘That girl would probably bite herself if she ever meets Seunghyun again – man, the guy has changed so much!’ the orange-head though with a grin and looked at his childhood friend’s profile as they walked. ‘These cheekbones!’

They had just left the dining hall when Jiyong remembered his memory dream he had had last night. “Hey Hyun” he said while they all were strolling down the corridor. “You remember how we always went to this music store near the train station? The one that had all these EP’s and records and magazines?” The older boy thought for a second and nodded. “Sure. Spend all my allowance there. We probably kept the shop alive most of the time, probably.” Jiyong smiled at that, “True. Did you ever go there after I moved away?” Seunghyun frowned, then shook his head. “It wasn’t really much fun to look for cool stuff alone, so I didn’t. When I moved after middle school, I found some cool stores here – the ones I showed you yesterday.” Jiyong couldn’t describe the feeling he had at this moment. It somehow felt nice to know that his best friend didn’t enjoy the music store after he left.

“Why are you asking?” Seunghyun wanted to know. “After we went to some shops yesterday it kinda triggered my memories or something… I think I dreamed of one of the times we went to the shop together… When you wanted to convince me to go to an audition with you.” The older boy laughed and put his arm over Jiyong’s shoulder. “Great times, really great times!” Taeyang shared a look with Seungri and Daesung, who just shrugged. “You wanted to audition when you were still in middle school?” he asked surprised. The orange-head pointed at Seunghyun and poked his cheek. “Not me, but this wanna-be-rapper here thought we were the greatest shit. Of course, we never actually went to a label, but he never gave up trying to convince me.”

The group reached Seunghyun’s classroom where the boy was immediately dragged in, while his classmates yakked at him about new ideas for the graduation. Seungri tried to talk to one of the girls but was ignored on the spot. Jiyong observed his childhood pal for a few seconds before following his friends down the corridor. “I still can’t believe that he actually took over the position of the class president! He never seemed to like taking too much responsibility for our own class…” The dread-head laughed lightly. “Looks like he changed over the years you haven’t seen each other…” “Yeah, but somehow, he’s still the same. When we went to these music stores yesterday it felt like we were still two kids in middle school… It’s weird, but awesome at the same time, you know?” Jiyong walked with the other boys until they got to Seungri’s and Dae’s class. “Text me when you’re done, then we can walk to the gym together,” Taeyang said before waving goodbye and the two juniors struck off to their own lecture.

The remaining lessons of the day went by in a flash. Maybe it was the excitement Jiyong felt about their first training session as a group, but especially during Algebra he couldn’t focus on anything their teacher told them. Taeyang next to him had to nudge Jiyong more than once so he’d solve a problem that had been written on the board. When the bell rang after English literature, Jiyong nearly jumped out of his seat and packed his stuff in his bag. His seatmate couldn’t bite back a grin when the boy started hopping from one foot to the other impatiently, while Taeyang was putting his book away extra slowly – just to bug him a little. They got a message from Daesung saying that the two boys were waiting for them by the stairs. Seunghyun was already with them when Jiyong and Taeyang got there. The dread-head hadn’t picked up the topic of his sister after their talk before lunch break, which Jiyong took as a sigh that maybe Taeyang didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. Not wanting to offend his classmate by asking too much, he started a conversation about their art project instead.

“So, what’s the plan for today?” Seungri asked while they were walking to the sports hall. Taeyang groaned and shoved him slightly, “We said yesterday we’d have our first training together, with one of the songs we showed Jiyong yesterday – remember?” “I’m already excited! Guys, it’s our first training together!” Jiyong grinned at his friends with his brightest smile. His glee was infecting Seunghyun and the others as well, and the group was very enthusiastic to work on their music.

Today the gymnasium was more occupied with students and sport groups than yesterday. On the sports fields around the gym other athletes were getting ready for their training and the school’s soccer team and the volleyball players were already warming up as well, when the five boys stepped into the building. Jiyong paused a few moments and watched while a few soccer players were building up the goals. Their trainer stood by the side and shouted some instructions and some other were already running rounds. Even some girls joined the warm-up. Seunghyun waving his hand in front of Jiyong’s face finally got him to focus back on their own undertaking. “You ok?” “Yeah, sorry, just lost in thoughts.”

They walked behind Daesung and Seungri, who were discussing something about one of their teachers Jiyong didn’t know and Taeyang was following them while looking at his flip phone, rapidly texting someone. Judging by his thoughtful face it was probably about his sister. “Are you still not sure if you can make it on Saturday?” Jiyong asked his childhood friend. Seunghyun scratched his neck and shook his head. “Not really… But I really hope so. It’s been a while since we all worked on one of our songs together.” “My parents and Mari won’t be at home, although I really wanted them to meet you.” They arrived at the small dance studio they had used yesterday, and the boys changed into their gym clothes quickly. Hyun grinned, “I really want to meet your mum again, too! She always made the best snacks!”

Jiyong figured out fast who was in charge of their physical training session. Not only did Taeyang know a lot of moves and watched a lot of music videos, he was also the fittest of the group and could explain the dance instructions pretty well. For warm-up the boys did some stretches before the dread-head connected his MP3-player with the ghetto blaster. “Alright. So, we already got a couple of choreographies that we use for references and training session. How about we show you one and then we can brainstorm for our own song?” Jiyong nodded enthusiastically, while Seungri complained that he’d forgotten everything over the summer break. Seunghyun and Daesung also looked to the side guiltily, not remembering much of their usual training routine as well. Taeyang signed but started the music anyway and the first beats of Everybody from the Backstreet Boys sounded through the room. “You guys are unbelievable! But never mind, it’s easy enough to follow. I’ll do the whole thing through once, and then we’ll focus on the first part. Just watch me.” After the boy group sang ‘Backstreet’s back alright’, the dread-head started off with some simple steps. Jiyong followed his friend’s movements attentively and tried to memorize most of them. Next to him Daesung seemed to remember the routine again, because he was already copying some of Taeyang’s steps. Seungri and Hyun were just nodding their heads to the music, though they looked very concentrated as well.

After the last chorus Taeyang stopped the music and turned back to the boys. “Got it memorized?” Everyone nodded more or less convincing. For the next 15 minutes the dread-head kept repeating this first part of the song choreography over and over until the other group members were following his steps and their group performance looked synchronous. Jiyong didn’t have any problems with the movements and sequence of steps, though that couldn’t be said about Seunghyun. His motions looked quite a bit stiff and kind of unenthusiastic or slow. “Hyun, you did good, considering it was the first dance practice after summer. Maybe a bit more vigor.” Seunghyun just grinned sheepishly. They took a break before continuing with the rest of the song. After they all managed the final pose, Seunghyun let himself flop on the floor exhaustedly, “That’s enough for the day, right? We did the whole dance, I’m dead!”

Daesung laughed and sat down next to his older friend, “I really thought you’d have more stamina. This is just one choreography.” Seunghyun groaned and laid his head down on his back bag. “I did great today, so shut up!” The youngest group member joined the boys on the floor. “And it still looked awful at times.” That earned him a shove in the guts. Jiyong watched them while he took a sip of his water. Taeyang walked over to the orange-head, clapping him on the shoulder. “You caught up pretty fast – that’s great! The others still remembered most of the routine, so it’s good that you’re a fast learner. Even Seunghyun managed to dance well enough.” Seeing Jiyong’s questioning look he added, “He’s normally not the greatest performer, today was actually pretty good – compared to his usual performance.” Jiyong laughed lightly and looked at his childhood friend. He’d never seen Seunghyun dance before. In middle school they usually just reenact songs with barely any body movement, just hand gestures and such.

“Ok, guys, that’s it for today –” Relieved groans from Seunghyun and even Seungri and Daesung, “– But we’ll continue this as soon as possible! We postpone the brainstorm session about our own choreography for now, too – until next time!” The boys changed out of their sweaty gym gear and packed their stuff before leaving the gymnasium together. It was already late afternoon, but luckily, they caught the school bus that picked up students after after-school-activities. Even Seunghyun rode the bus this time, his girlfriend apparently still had afternoon lectures. The boys – except Taeyang of course – were pretty exhausted, not really used to sportive activities (they still hadn’t had PE yet). After just a short while the bus stop Daesung, Seungri and Jiyong had to get off came in view. “Ok, guys, see you tomorrow,” Taeyang and Seunghyun called and the three boys left the vehicle.

 Jiyong wondered how their meeting on Saturday would turn out. He was really looking forward to Taeyang’s recording equipment, though it would suck if Seunghyun really couldn’t make it and they’d have to work on the song without him. Then Jiyong thought about their first dance practice today. It hadn’t been bad, and the choreography Taeyang had shown him was pretty good, with some step sequences they’d probably work with in the future as well… Of course, they had to be careful not to just copy choreographies for their own songs – that would totally take the individuality out of the song!

Daesung, Seungri and Jiyong parted ways at a crossroad soon after. When the orange-head arrived at home he was just in time for dinner. He definitely needed to take a shower again, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is still a bit slow, but I promise the story will pick up more after this - hopefully. Also, I can tell that there's going to be a "Halloween special"! :)
> 
> Also, to see how I imagined the Everybody choreography to look like, here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApJQxQM6z-o 
> 
> Hope you liked it! Tell me what you think :)


	7. TURN IT UP

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter right on time for Halloween, though this is not a Halloween Special.  
> I hope you'll still enjoy this chapter anyway, the story soon will pick up more speed... hopefully!

The first week at his new school was officially over! Signing happily into his pillows, Jiyong turned around and enjoyed the silence that a Saturday morning brought with it. Even Mari slept in on the weekend, though that was mostly because Mum wanted to have some more sleep as well. His little sister was probably already up and playing in her room – quietly! He lazily stretched his tired muscles and pushed his blanket off his feet – it was way too warm this early in the morning anyway. He didn’t really mind it though, he felt too comfortable to be annoyed.

Yesterday had been fun, even if they hadn’t had a training session. Seunghyun had to stay in school for some graduation theme discussion (apparently, they couldn’t agree on one and now there were three parties arguing against each other – poor Hyun!), so Daesung suggested going to the arcade again to “celebrate Ji joining the team”. After that they went to the same ramen noodle shop as on Tuesday – all in all an amazing way to end the school week. It had been great and Jiyong thought that this place would probably become one of his favorite ones in town. He couldn’t actually remember a time after middle school, when he went out with friends – or even just classmates – to have a late lunch together. Of course, he met up with friends in the city once in a while, but those were really special occasions, because they were busy most of the time. Also, this time together gave him the opportunity to get to know the boys better. He spent the whole school day with Taeyang, and Seunghyun he already knew pretty well (though they had some catching up to do, but they still got lots of time for that). Daesung and Seungri on the other hand he only saw during lunch and their training, when they usually had other stuff to talk about then personal stories or family. So, this time at the arcade and the ramen shop he had talked a lot with Dae and Seungri, while Taeyang also shared some stories about the boys.

Coming back to the present and out of yesterday’s memories, Jiyong yawned and finally sat up. His clock on the nightstand showed it was 10am, so the others would come over in roughly two hours. Surveying his now completely tidied-up room, he looked for some space to place Taeyang’s recording equipment. All his homework and school books were piled up on his desk, the monitor of his computer also took quite some space – though they would definitely need his PC for their work. He frowned and stood up, then walked up to his workspace. Maybe another small desk could fit in? The equipment would stay here so it needed a permanent “parking place”. Maybe his Dad had something he could use… Grinning widely, happily looking forward to their work later, Jiyong made his bed before pulling his note book with his lyric ideas out of his back bag. He looked at it thoughtfully, biting his bottom lip while flipping through the pages. Should he show it to his new friends? Or to Seunghyun? They already knew that he was working on his own song ideas for quite a while now, but… did he feel comfortable enough to let them see these rough sketches? No, probably not. Most of them were not even finished, and they didn’t have the tonality of himself, Kwon Jiyong… Maybe he needed an alter ego. Jiyong laughed at his own thought, ‘Right, an alter ego. Me and acting cool, riiight! Get a hold of yourself, you don’t even have the guts to sing your own songs – you’d look like an idiot!’ He groaned, pushed his hair out of his face and hid the note book in his wardrobe.

As he left his room and went to the kitchen he could hear his mother and sister getting ready in the bathroom. It seemed like Mari was really excited for their trip to the mall and asked her mother a bunch of questions without really waiting for an answer. And there at the dinner table sat his Dad – fully awake this time, munching on some toast. It was the first time this week since Jiyong started school, that his father wasn’t sleeping or had already left for work; it was great that he’d finally had the chance to have a proper conversation with his Dad! He smiled widely and hugged the man’s neck from behind, “Morning!” His father patted his arm and turned the page of the newspaper he was reading. “You’re up early, any plans today?” Jiyong hummed, snatched a buttered piece of toast from the plate and walked into the kitchen. “Yeah, a couple of friends gonna come over later, like… school friends.” “From this band that you’re part of?” Grinning brightly, Jiyong filled his bowl with cornflakes and milk and sat down next to his father. “Yeah, the one Seunghyun is also part of!”

Man, it felt great to have a talk with his Dad again! One week wasn’t really a long time, but after yet another move into a new place and the great first week that he had had, Jiyong just wanted to share his good mood and talk with his father about everything. His Dad asked him a bunch of question about school, the teachers and the lessons. Needless to say, that Jiyong turned their conversation to the topic of their dance training and the plans that they had, getting more and more lively as he told his father about his friends. Seunghyun came up as well – obviously. “Did you know that Hyun is actually bad at dancing? He was concentrating so hard not to mess up, but it looked stiff anyway!” Jiyong laughed, “Though I was really surprised when I heard him sing after five years… He’s pretty good!” “Well,” his Dad said, putting his newspaper aside, “it’s good to see that some things don’t change.” Jiyong looked at the man confused, “How so?” “As far as I remember, Seunghyun wasn’t a very… graceful boy, when it comes to body movement. When you had to do these gymnastics courses he looked pretty overwhelmed. Then again, he was always eager to improve his voice. Like you.” Giggling, Jiyong nodded as he recalled said sports course back in his second year of high school, when the parents were able to watch their kids during their normal school routine – like an open house, but for parents. Seunghyun had felt awful, while Ji himself had had a really amusing day. Gosh, that were great times!

“Ji~!” A very excited Mari came running down the corridor, throwing herself at her older brother, who caught her easily and sat her down on his lap. “We’re going to the mall! We’re going to the mall!!” His mother walked up to the table and gave Jiyong a kiss good morning on the forehead, before getting Mari’s breakfast from the kitchen. “Daesung told me yesterday, that they have a flea market in the mall today, if you want to check that out,” Jiyong said as he listened to his sister with half an ear. “Will do. Do you need something? School supplies or something?” His mother put a plate with toast in front of her babbling daughter and sat down at the table herself. Everyone except Jiyong was already dressed and ready to go.

“You’re not coming with us, Ji?” Mari asked crestfallenly. “But we’re going to the mall!” Jiyong grinned at the little girl and began tickling her sides. “My friends are coming over and they don’t have to meet my annoying little sister, who’d just bug us all the time. We’re trying to be productive, and with you, we won’t do that!” Child’s laughter was sounding through the flat while Mari was trying to pout at her brother, failing miserably. “But I want to meet your friends, too!” “Not today, little miss, not today!”

After breakfast Jiyong said goodbye to his parents and Mari, who let go of him reluctantly, and then went to the bathroom to get ready. He had an hour left. Now he was getting a bit nervous – and frustrated; Seunghyun still hadn’t texted him if he could make it today or not. Shaking his head about his friend’s unreliability, Jiyong looked through one of the closets in the hallway, searching for this little fold-up table his father had told him about. Thinking about the conversation he had had with his father during breakfast about how some things don’t change, he couldn’t stop but feel uncertain. Maybe he was wrong about Seunghyun, and his childhood friend had changed too much over the years. In the last few days he didn’t really give their situation much thought. After all, they hadn’t really talked about what happened during these five years since he had moved away. All he knew about his friend’s situation now was, that he came to this high school for his freshmen year after he moved as well – and that his sister moved out and he had a girlfriend now. Jiyong held his breath for a second. What if they’d grow apart from each other again after a while? Oh god.

No, no way. Their new-found friendship would never die down ever again! They shared so many great memories, Seunghyun was such an amazing friend and so important to him. It had hurt so much to leave him behind and it spoke for itself, that he hadn’t made so many good friends over the years – well, at least at school, where he had spent most of his days by himself. And now… now he felt pretty inspired for basically everything! Being part of a boy group, making music – it was really amazing how a simple friendship could change a person. So, no; he and Seunghyun would stay friends, and no, Seunghyun didn’t change – at least not too much to prevent their friendship to grow again!

Just as he was pulling the table out of the cupboard, still lost in thoughts, he heard the ringing of his cellphone from the other room. Nearly falling over, himself he rushed to his bed and picked up the small device without looking at the caller’s id. “Hey?” _“Hey, it’s me”_ Oh, just Taeyang. _“Hyun and I just got on the bus, so we’ll be there in about 15 minutes –”_ “Wait, Seunghyun is with you? Why didn’t he text me?” There was laughter at the other end of the line. _“He says he’s sorry, he totally forgot.”_ Jiyong sighed but was pretty glad that his old friend could make it after all. He was so relieved – so, he could still rely on his childhood friend to not let them down. A happy feeling filled his body and if possible, he was looking forward to their meet-up even more than before! “Alright, then see you both in 15 minutes!”

After Jiyong put the small table next to his work space, he threw all his school books on his bed and got ready to pick up his friends. Daesung and Seungri were probably on their way already; Dae, being the more punctual one, would make sure their youngest friend was on time, too. With one last look to his study desk Jiyong left the room, grabbed his keys and made his way to the bus stop. Sure enough, the two sophomores were already waiting for him. And just a couple of minutes later the bus pulled up and Taeyang and Seunghyun joined them as well. “Who would have though, you’d actually make it!” Seungri clapped the senior on the back. The other boys looked pretty happy to have Hyun with them, as well. “I thought you’d spend the day with your GF?” For just a second Jiyong thought he saw how Seunghyun’s expression darkened, but the moment was over as soon as it happened, so it was probably nothing anyway. “Be glad I even bother with you,” the older boy laughed instead and turned to Daesung and Jiyong to greet them with a one-armed hug.

“OK guys, this way!” With that the five boys walked down the street back to the blocks of flats. “My little sister was pretty upset that she couldn’t meet you, but you’ll probably soon have the pleasure to come upon Mari and her nosiness in person anyway.” The other boys just shrugged. “I don’t mind. My two siblings are even worse… They’ll start with Elementary School next week and think that they could go to class with me then…,” Daesung groaned. “At least they talk to you. My sisters ignore me most of the time! The younger one is in this ‘don’t talk to me unless to answer my questions’-phase, and the older one… well…,” Taeyang left the sentence unfinished, but the others seemed to know not to ask for more info and so they just changed the topic. Jiyong looked at his classmate worriedly, but Taeyang just gave him a small smile. The orange-head really wanted to help his friends somehow, but this was a family problem, and he didn’t want to overstep the mark.

“It’s pretty boring since Sandara moved out, though I do enjoy the free space at home.” Sandara? Uh, Jiyong remembered her! She was Seunghyun’s older sister; she’d probably still was in college though. As he was walking alongside his friend, he couldn’t stop the grin that was forming on his face. “How’s she doing? Last thing I know, she was just getting ready for her final year in High School.” His childhood friend laughed, “Well, that info is long outdated! Sandara is already in university, studying something with Management and Economical Control or something. She moved out right after High School and lives in the city ever since.”

Jiyong could remember Sandara pretty well, though back then her being so focused on school hindered her from spending much time with her brother. But whenever Jiyong was over at Hyun’s place she’d help them with their homework or cook dinner for them when their parents were still working late. Sometimes he had been quite jealous of his best friend, because he – unlike Seunghyun – had grown up as an only child. Some other classmates who also had siblings would often complain about their older brothers or sisters, but he could never understand why. For him having someone close to his age to play and have fun with was the best thing ever! Maybe that was the reason, he and Seunghyun became such great friends…

He was brought back from his memories, when they reached his apartment building – and because Seungri also had to share his own sibling-story: “My big brother is pretty chill. My parents are really proud since he’s an accountant is a big company, so they don’t keep a close eye on my grades.” Daesung smacked his head, “No need to grin like an idiot! A bit more commitment in class would do you good – You think all these idols you look up to were just finishing school half-assed?” The other buys grinned as Seungri pouted like a child. “You always say that, Dae, no need to hit me!” “Crybaby!”

After a few flights of stairs, they reached the flat and Jiyong unlocked the door, letting his friends and himself into his home. “Thank you for having us!” the four boys said and left their shoes on the shoe-shelve next to the door. “Dae’s right, you know?” Jiyong spoke as he led the boys into his room. Taeyang, who had carried a huge back bag the whole time, groaned in relief as he put the thing on the bed. “What do you mean?” Seungri asked and sat down on Ji’s desk chair. “Idol’s having a good education…” The younger boy looked at him in surprise and the others too seemed interested. “I’ve heard from some friends that many of the upcoming idols and groups study in their free time, so they can show the agency their commitment and to prove that they have more to offer then just their talent… And also, because they want to have a plan B, if their career doesn’t work out.” Seungri actually looked quite embarrassed hearing that info. Jiyong smiled at the boy sympathetically. “But don’t worry about it too much, you’re no idiot.” And so far, there really was no need for them to even start worrying about impressing anyone – they still had so much they had to do: practice, training… actually singing! Dreaming was nice and all, but they would never get anywhere if they didn’t improve… Other than that, there was still the fact that they were a loooong way from being a good enough group to even sign up for an audition, though the orange-head would never say anything like that to the other group members; they probably knew that anyway.

Jiyong went to the kitchen and brought in two more chairs, while his friends got comfortable in his room and Taeyang unpacked the equipment. Everything looked great: the microphone as well as the mixer console were easy to handle and after he started his computer the installation of the needed programs to run the devises were done easily as well. “This is awesome! Your uncle really gave you the good stuff!” The boys were more than excited to see all the equipment ready for action. “Ok, now we should first focus on getting the melody we already have into the program, so we can work with it. Maybe we can make it even better when we have the vocal part ready,” the orange-head said and opened the music file of the LaLaLa song, that he had copied from the CD Taeyang had given him at the beginning of the week. “Let’s do this, guys!”

It wasn’t exactly easy to figure out how to start the recording and how to work with the technology… Taeyang tried his best to remember how his uncle did it, when he’d explained everything to him. They couldn’t play the music loudly, the room had to be dead quiet, because the mic was very sensitive for sounds. Therefore, each of them had to put on headphones which were connected to the computer and the sound system, so they could hear the melody while they were recording their singing. They felt quite awkward at first, standing side by side in front of the microphone in an otherwise silent room. Their voices were also still a bit scratchy, which made them just even more nervous and frustrated.

After the fifth useless try Seungri pushed the headphones off his ears and plopped down on Jiyong’s bed. “Man, this sucks! Why is this so hard? We did so well the first time we practiced it together!” Taeyang stopped the recording and sat down on one of the chairs. “I can’t really get into it either. Whatever we try, the results always sound awful!” “My voice is all scratchy, I can’t even hit the higher notes. We will never get to record this song like that!” Even Daesung sounded pretty bugged by this situation. Jiyong went to the kitchen and got his friends some lemonade his mom left them. Maybe they had started their meeting today wrong; just jumping right into the song-recording probably had been a bad idea.

“Ok guys, let’s take a break and focus on something different. We probably bit off more than we can chew from the very beginning…,” he said as he stepped back into his room. “Maybe we should start with something… easier.” Seunghyun took some of the glasses and passed them to the others. “Like what?” Jiyong shrugged. “We should train our voices, or rather, we should warm it up. Is there a song you know by heart?”

The practice session only got better after that – well, kind of at least. They were definitely not ready to record their first own song yet. Listening to their taped voices made that pretty obvious. ‘Practice makes perfect,’ Jiyong thought while he was watching his friends kidding around, singing a very comical version of “Baby One More Time” from Britney Spears. Their voices were still unused to singing, and just like training their bodies for choreographies, they needed to practice that more as well. But it was a start, even if it hadn’t gone like they’d wanted it to go. Just jumping right into it didn’t work. When they first sang together it had been a lucky shot really. Now they had to work on themselves and their own abilities – but Jiyong was positive that they’d get there sooner or later! … Hopefully.

The afternoon was spent with laughter and weirdly performed songs. At some point later Seungri had found Jiyong’s school books and asked the juniors and senior for some help for an essay he and Daesung had to write soon. In the end Seunghyun tried to explain the two sophomores the easiest way to get the thing written down, while Taeyang and Jiyong did some work on their own. Because it had been the first week, the amount of work was manageable, though – some literature and algebra and a few questions in economics.

Lost in thoughts, Jiyong stared dead ahead while playing with the pen in his fingers. Next to him his classmate was fact-checking some things from their economics book. On the other side of his bed, Seungri and Daesung made notes as Hyun went over an essay example in one of Jiyong’s books. His voice was quiet and deep. Back in middle school he had sounded completely different – who would have thought that the boy would get such a voice! With his hand supporting his head Jiyong almost dreamingly watched his childhood friend patiently talk to the two younger boys, before snapping out of it again. Seunghyun’s voice was just really relaxing. ‘Man, I could listen to that all day…’

Looking at the scene in front of him, Jiyong got some weird sense of déjà-vu, though he couldn’t really put his finger on it. He frowned and tried his hardest to remember the time when he and Seunghyun were in a situation like this before. But even after a few minutes of just going through old memories, nothing came to mind. Just then Taeyang poked him in the rips to get his attention, because he was done with proofreading. And with that the calm atmosphere was gone. Daesung took a look at the clock, which showed that it was already close to 6pm. “I should probably head home. I told my mum I’d be home for dinner.” Stretching his back until it cracked, Seungri also stood up from his hunched position on the bed, “I’m going, too. Too bad, we couldn’t record that song… But today was fun anyway! Thanks for having us, Ji!” The other boys also gave their thanks again and helped the boy to put the chairs back into the kitchen. “Don’t forget your notes, or all the explanations I gave you were futile!” Seunghyun called from Jiyong’s room. Smiling sheepishly the two sophomores run back to the senior and picked up the papers.

“Hey, Taeyang,” The dread-head turned to Jiyong, “Do you mind, if I use the tech equipment for some… of my own stuff?” “Your own stuff? Like, you want to record something on your own?” Jiyong nodded a tad nervous. Even though they hadn’t been very productive today, he himself got really inspired to try out some of his own songs… Well, most of them hadn’t even a melody yet, so he still had to create those, but at least he could try out the flow of the lyrics better this way, could record himself and check out the music programs to give the song a rhythm.

Taeyang grinned and ruffled Ji’s hair. “So, you already got some other ideas? That’s great! You can use the stuff as much as you like – maybe you’ll figure out how everything works, that’d be awesome!” Jiyong smiled at his friend thankfully and walked the boys to the door. “We should probably add some singing practice to our exercise regimen – like, at the beginning of all our training session we’d sing something…” The youngest group member made a face, “You think this is necessary?” Taeyang shoved him slightly. “He’s right, idiot! We saw today that our voices are shit and we won’t get any better without some vocal warm-up.” Rubbing his sore arm where Taeyang had hit him, Seungri just grunted but left it at that. Daesung, always trying to keep the conflicts at a minimum, pulled his classmate out of the flat and waved goodbye. “We’ll see you on Monday, don’t forget your blazers!”

Seunghyun sighed, put an arm around Jiyong’s shoulder and heavily leant against the other boy. “I love them to death, but they can be a real pain in the ass sometimes!” Laughing at his friend’s face, Jiyong looked up at the senior. Why had he been worried about Seunghyun before? That had been completely unnecessary! So what if they hadn’t seen each other in five years? They could still catch up on everything now. It seemed that Hyun was still the same – or at least had barely changed… though Jiyong couldn’t really be sure about that yet. Meanwhile Taeyang went to get his things, so he could hit the road as well. “But I want to hear one of your compositions when you finish it, alright? And it better be good!” he called from Ji’s room, which made the boy laugh even harder. Today was a really good day.

Soon after, his childhood friend left with the dread-head since they both had to take the same bus again. Just before he’d left Seunghyun made Jiyong promise to show him his lyric book – “the one you have since middle school!” – someday, though Jiyong was sure that this day was still in a future very far away! He wasn’t really convinced that any of the song ideas were good: the words and phrases sounded weird whenever he tried them out and without music they were just a bunch of random sentences. He really needed some melodies for that!

Just as he was putting away his school work he heard the front door open and a very excited Mari came running in his room. “Ji~, we brought dinner! The mall was so big, the biggerest mall ever!” Smiling, he picked the little girl up and let her go on and on about her great adventure at the shopping center and the main street. His parents were in the kitchen, unpacking some grocery bags. They looked tired but happy, so it seemed like their day had been just as nice as it had been for Jiyong.

Until he went to bed this evening, Jiyong was still musing about their training. He had looked through his CD collection and had picked out some songs from a couple of groups, that could easily be used as practice material for their singing exercises. He even chose some songs sang by female artists. The others might not like this idea, but to improve their voice performances they had to try out different things – like higher pitched songs and such… Thinking about one particular girl group he remembered something important: A friend of his had some video material of her dance practice. Maybe he could borrow it and show it to the guys. It was a fairly new group that had had their debut just a few weeks ago. The songs they had put out so far were pretty good, and Jiyong even had seen a poster of the girl group in the window of a music store the other day. So, it was safe to say that they had the knowledge and skills when it came to dancing and singing – which made them perfect for the boys’ training!

Jiyong signed and looked at the words he had written down and had worked on for quite a while now. The song he had in mind was slow, the melody almost dreamy, the lyrics romantic but not dramatic. It was a love song – though he had no idea where the inspiration for that had come from. He just had had this feeling after his friends had left, the feeling that he could finally finish one of the many ideas that had been flying around in his head for so long! He’d given the song the title _Butterfly_ , because that was the first thing that he’d associated with the feelings he had felt this afternoon – butterflies in his stomach. Probably the result of the exciting time he had spent with his friends. As he put his notebook with song ideas away, he grabbed his phone and shot his friend a message, asking for the video tape. She was probably too busy to answer right away, but he knew that Chaerin would text him back whenever she could.

Looking at the clock on his nightstand, Jiyong frowned and rubbed his eyes. It was close to 1am, no wonder he was so tired! He made his way to the bathroom, brushed his teeth and put on his night shirt and shorts before falling onto his bed. Tonight, it was really warm again, but luckily that didn’t stop him from falling asleep right away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think :)


	8. Happy New Year! [Update]

Happy new year, dear readers!

I'm so sorry for not updating in a while, BUT this story is still going to be continued! I just had a stressful few months, and a writer's block. Originally I wanted to post a Halloween Special, but the writer's block got the best of me... Now I'm finishing that Halloween chapter and write the new one right after, so please bear with me for a few more weeks until the semester ends! Same goes for my _Monster_ story, too.

2019 is going to be a great year (hopefully)! One after another, the **BigBang** members **are coming back** from their military service in the course of the year! I'm already so excited about that!!  
  
Guys, I really hope you've enjoyed the story so far! There's not much feedback to go by, but I love this story and have so many ideas that I want to put into it, so I will definitely continue! Please tell me if you have ideas, too, or things that you might want to see in this story! Let me hear what you think even if it might not be positive! It's been years since I wrote a longer story, and my style of writing is still clumsy and slow and maybe even boring... So please, if you have any comments about that... 

 

I hope you had a great start into this new year, I wish you all the best!

**Bye for now!!**


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